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Reallocating $100/Month Claude Code Spend to Zed and OpenRouter

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Re: Reallocating $100/Month Claude Code Spend to Zed and OpenRouter

#141

Post by vidarh »

wiether wrote: post #13

People may feel differently about the fee that OpenRouter takes, but I think the service they provide is worth the extra cost. Having access to dozens of models through a single API key, tracking cost of each request, being able to run the same request on different models and comparing their results next to each other, separating usages through different API keys, adding your own presets, setting your routing rules..…

I love Openrouter. The ability to define presets, and the ease of access is well worth the few vs. juggling lots of providers separately. I maintain a few subscriptions too - including the most expensive Claude subscription - but Openrouter handles the rest for me.

Re: Reallocating $100/Month Claude Code Spend to Zed and OpenRouter

#143

Post by fxtentacle »

udkl wrote: post #129
supernes wrote: post #22

On the topic of Zed itself as a VSCode replacement - my experience is mixed. I loved it at first, but with time the papercuts add up. The responsiveness difference isn't that big on my system, but Zed's memory usage (with the TS language server in particular) is scandalous. As far as DX goes it's probably at 85% of the level VSCode provides, but in this space QoL features matter a lot. Oh, and it still can't render e…

QoL features is where WebStorm shines! I don't look forward to when I have to open vscode instead sometimes. Just the floating and ephemeral "Search in files" modal in Jetbrain IDEs would convince me to switch from any other IDE.

my favorite is Ctrl+Shift+A which lets you search through all available UI actions (hence the A). That's just so helpful if you know the IDE can do something but you forgot where in the menu structure it was. And to top things off, you can also use Ctrl+Shift+A to look up the keyboard shortcuts for every possible action

Re: Reallocating $100/Month Claude Code Spend to Zed and OpenRouter

#144

Post by kitsune1 »

gruez wrote: post #116
lelanthran wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I easily get $1K+ of usage out of my $100 max sub. And that's with Opus 4.6 on high thinking. And people keep claiming the token providers are running inference at a profit.

>And people keep claiming the token providers are running inference at a profit. Not everyone gets $1K of usage, and you don't know how fat the per-token margins are. It's like saying the local buffet place is losing money because you eat $100 worth of takeout for $30.

[dead]

Re: Reallocating $100/Month Claude Code Spend to Zed and OpenRouter

#145

Post by datadrivenangel »

therealpygon wrote: post #78
wiether wrote: post #13

People may feel differently about the fee that OpenRouter takes, but I think the service they provide is worth the extra cost. Having access to dozens of models through a single API key, tracking cost of each request, being able to run the same request on different models and comparing their results next to each other, separating usages through different API keys, adding your own presets, setting your routing rules..…

I agree with you in certain circumstances, but not really for internal user inference. OpenRouter is great if you need to maintain uptime, but for basic usage (chat/coding/self-agents) you can do all of what you mentioned and more with a LiteLLM instance. The number of companies that send a bill is rarely a concern when it comes to “is work getting done”, but I agree with you that minimizing user friction is best. Fo…

LiteLLM had a major security incident recently, and often isn't actually that useful an abstraction...

Re: Reallocating $100/Month Claude Code Spend to Zed and OpenRouter

#146

Post by andai »

blitzar wrote: post #7
Computer0 wrote: post #4

When I use the tool ccusage it says I use $600 of usage a month for my $100. I don’t know that this is a good value proposition for me if I want to stay with the same model, half the reason I use Claude code, personally.

> Reallocating $100/Month Claude Code Spend The new gimped claude code limits means my claude code spend the last month is $131. It cost me $20. I did an additional spend $5 on extra usage which cost me $5. While VC's are setting fire to money I am going to warm my hands.

You mean you were getting more than $130 per $20 before?

85% discount is actually a bit lower than I remember. I think it used to be closer to 90-95%. They're getting stingy ;)

Re: Reallocating $100/Month Claude Code Spend to Zed and OpenRouter

#147

Post by ZeWaka »

raincole wrote: post #135
Daviey wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know, when I wrote that I genuinely meant it, or at least I think i did. It wasn't supposed to be passive aggressive. :( But that doesn't negate the maintainer talking to people like that (and taking contributions without attribution).. and the net result is I don't want to use the software, and frankly they probably won't miss me.. so the end result is neutral.. I just find it sad.

> Maybe extend that break for the rest of the month and come back nicer? Quite sure most (perhaps >99%) adult people would consider this passive aggressive. But yeah, I agree with you for the rest part. Why did Mario assume that bot is you...?

if a human showed up directly under some bot bullshit pinging me I'd assume they were the bot operator as well

Re: Reallocating $100/Month Claude Code Spend to Zed and OpenRouter

#148

Post by vidarh »

i_love_retros wrote: post #16

I can't believe people are spending $100 a month on this! You're all mad!

$200 for Claude, $50 to Open AI, and maybe $100 for Openrouter, and a second Claude account paid by a client... Likely to increase.

It easily pays for itself 10x over.

Re: Reallocating $100/Month Claude Code Spend to Zed and OpenRouter

#149

Post by mikeocool »

extr wrote: post #109

I think you are kidding if you think you are going to be remotely approximately the quantity/quality of output you get from a $100/max sub with Zed/Openrouter. I easily get $1K+ of usage out of my $100 max sub. And that's with Opus 4.6 on high thinking.

Yeah — I just created an anthropic API key to experiment with pi, and managed to spend $1 in about 30 minutes doing some basic work with Sonnet.

Extrapolating that out, the subscription pricing is HEAVILY subsidized. For similar work in Claude Code, I use a Pro plan for $20/month, and rarely bang up against the limits.

Re: Reallocating $100/Month Claude Code Spend to Zed and OpenRouter

#150

Post by SR2Z »

rvnx wrote: post #106
wongarsu wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of inference providers for open models only accept prepaid payments, and managing multiple of those accounts is kind of cumbersome. I could limit myself to a smaller set of providers, but then I'm probably overpaying by more than the 5.5% fee If you're only using flagship model providers then openrouter's value add is a lot more limited

The main thing about Openrouter is also that they take 100% of the risk in case of overcharges from the models, you have an actual hard cap. The minus is that context caching is only moderately working at best, rendering all savings nearly useless.

Is there any risk? Don't the model providers also bill by the token?
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