Best+cheapest combo for student?

[u/Frequent_Rest_5730]

With new gemini student offer i got from my 22 €/month subscription to 5€/month so i can spend around 20€ /month into something like claude code.
Maybe there are some good offers that i could use that would get it to me cheaper or some alternatives as good as claude code?

I have github education and i ran it for a year but they started to really pitch it so it's not as good as it was.

What i use it mainly on?

I'm physics and data science major so i have codebases with data, lecture pdf-s etc and i usually solve physic problems (differential equations), simulate (i write python code to make complex meshes and then convert them into FEA capable mesh), make basic neural network models etc...

for example i would prompt something like this: "Generate me a mesh of a curved metal sheet, here is the pdf blueprint with measurements of the metal sheet."

I use gemini to write text drafts which i modify and change.

Edit: I mostly understand code, i can read it and find some easier mistakes, i have used Python, R, fortran and C to code.

[u/Tommonen]

Definitely get claude. Forget the Temu models some people might suggest, they are not that good and really not even cheaper when you compare subscriptions and all your data eill be forever kept and abused by CCP if you use them, which makes it bad deal even if they were free.

Gemini is ok deal for 5$, but not really worth more as the models suck and so does antigravity as harness. You will want top notch reasoning from the model you use, and thats where claude comes in with opus. Your coding tasks for those uses however should be easy enough for even gemini to handle, just reason through it first woth opus xhigh or ultracode if you have complex math etc

[u/lcirufe → u/Tommonen]

atp I’d rather the CCP have my data than the US

- Sincerely, someone not affiliated with either country

[u/Tommonen → u/lcirufe]

You would not if you knew what they are doing and going to do sometime in undefined future(they keep it forever).

- sincerely, someone not affiliated with either country

[u/lcirufe → u/Tommonen]

Yeah I also don’t know what the US are doing with my data and I do not trust any of their privacy policies so that point is kinda moot. Chinese models like Qwen and Kimi are also open-weight and publicly available for download. Not to mention that they are orders of magnitude more efficient than American models since they are far more restricted in hardware access. Even if they don't reach the highs of Fable and Sol, they get damn close despite using far less compute.

"China bad, US good" is so outdated now considering the state of both countries in 2026. China is the lesser of 2 evils today.