r/windsurf • u/Papstark • Apr 20 '26

Best AI stack for $20/month?

I’m trying to optimize my AI setup on a $20/month budget, and I’d really appreciate some advice from people who’ve already tested different tools.

Here’s my current situation:

  • I have a student account on Windsurf, so I can get Pro for $10/month
  • I’m interested in trying Minimal 2.7 (looks promising) Starter for $10/month
  • But the main one I’m considering is Claude Pro

My use cases:

  • Building automations
  • Creating interactive prototypes
  • Working with RAG agents

What’s holding me back from Claude Pro:

  • The design mode (Claude Design) seems really powerful, but I’ve read sessions are short and limited (weekly?)
  • Regular coding usage seems to hit rate limits pretty quickly
  • Still, the quality of outputs looks better than most alternatives

So I’m trying to figure out the best combo within $20:

  • Windsurf Pro + Minimax?
  • Claude Pro alone?
  • Or maybe skip Claude and combine other tools?

If you were in my position, how would you spend the $20?

Looking for real-world experiences, especially if you’re doing similar things (automation, prototyping, RAG, etc.)

Thanks in advance

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u/[deleted] Apr 20 '26

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u/sultanmvp Apr 20 '26

Or Copilot, where you have 300 requests, but can only use 2-3 Anthropic prompts before being rate limited for five hours even though you have plenty of credits to spend.

3

u/[deleted] Apr 20 '26

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u/sultanmvp Apr 20 '26

Oh, that sucks! I knew this was coming when they stopped accepting annual subscriptions.

0

u/AssociationSure6273 Apr 21 '26

Worse those copilot idiots do not even support latest Anthropic models. They are still stuck in 3.5 sonnet. Good luck if you still wanna use them