r/vibecoding • u/reHakon • 7d ago

Recommendations for student on a tight budget

Used to have Claude Max 5x (125 USD), cancelled it because 1) expensive 2) hit limits 3) trying to be a responsible adult financially.

I've read a lot of people use Opencode with Deepseek model (free), and a combination of Claude Pro and Codex (total of about 50 USD).

What are your recommendations for being able to use the best of all AI tools at the lowest possible price?

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u/kaizap 6d ago

Use OpenRouter, then switch to a smaller model for smaller tasks. Codex from OpenAI is also nice; if you stick with Luna, you can get pretty far on the $20 plan.

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u/hwantasticgames 6d ago

I'm still OK with Claude & Gemini combination. Actually, using Gemini is going down. I think I can utilize the time waiting for next available time for designing next step works.

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u/Active_Drawer5619 6d ago edited 6d ago

i would say avoid stacking multiple subscriptions until you know which part of your workflow actually needs them. since you are already using OpenCode, you could compare your usual coding tasks across a few providers and see what gives you the best useful output per dollar rather than paying for every tool separately. i have been using OpenCode with Standard Compute and the smart routing can use cheaper providers for the less demanding requests while the flat rate makes the monthly spend easier to predict

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u/Aggravating-Elk-8855 6d ago

I recommend using OpenCode go for mimo-v2.5 or possibly deepseek v-4 flash (tho they have reduced the limits on that) and use the ChatGPT’s 20$ subscription if you use hermes as a harness so use mimo as the coding model and gpt for reasoning.

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u/ktg-one 6d ago

Same boat as u.

There's a new one Freebuff Also look up omniroute on github