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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

#221

Post by eshack94 »

Aurornis wrote: post #137
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.

Some of the newer models available on OpenRouter are good, but I agree that none of them are a replacement for Opus 4.6 for coding. If you're trying to minimize cost then having one of the inexpensive models do exploratory work and simple tasks while going back to Opus for the serious thinking and review is a good hybrid model. Having the $20/month Claude plan available is a good idea even if you're primarily using O…

I've been thinking of doing this — using one of the "pretty good but not Opus 4.6-good, YET very cheap" models for the implementation part of more basic code features, AFTER first using Opus 4.6 high for the planning stage.

Do you think this would be a decent approach?

Also, which client would I use for this? OpenCode? I don't think Claude Code supports using other models. Thoughts?

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

#222

Post by jusonchan81 »

$20 codex has been working great for me and I don’t think I ever hit a limit. It works great because I typically break down the tasks small enough that I can fully review and accept.

I’ve always wondered what’s the business case for spending more as I personally feel I am getting so much done.

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

#223

Post by selcuka »

alexjplant wrote: post #185
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.

For personal use I've noticed Claude (via the web-based chat UI) making really bizarre mistakes lately like ignoring input or making completely random assumptions. At work Claude Code has turned into an absolute dog. It fails to follow instructions and builds stuff like a lazy junior developer without any architecture, tests, or verification. This is even with max effort, Opus 4.6, multiple agents, early compaction,…

> At work Claude Code has turned into an absolute dog.

Could it be related to this?: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47660925

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

#224

Post by selcuka »

causal wrote: post #156
mikeocool wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

And it scales up - the $200 plan gets you something like 20x what the Pro plan gets you. I've never come close to hitting that limit. It's obviously capital-subsidized and so I have zero expectation of that lasting, but it's pretty anti-competitive to Cursor and others that rely on API keys.

Ignoring the training costs, the marginal cost for inference is pretty low for providers. They are estimated to break even or better with their $20/month subscriptions.

That being said, they can't stop launching new models, so training is not a one time task. Therefore one might argue that it is part of the marginal cost.

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

#225

Post by recursivegirth »

esperent wrote: post #214
recursivegirth wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought a $30 Z.ai Coding Plan sub to go with it. 7 million tokens has only gone through 2% of my weekly usage using the GLM-5.1 model. I am pretty happy. I am only doing single project workflows, but with Z.ai I feel like it opens a whole new door to parallel workflows without hitting usage limits.

Is GLM-5.1 actually good? I tested one of the other models that everyone is raving about yesterday (Qwen 3.6 plus) and within minutes found myself arguing with it even over a very simple task. After about 30 minutes (in which token usage never went over 50k because it was just me rewinding to give it more and more explicit instructions which it kept ignoring), I reverted everything and did it with Opus in literally a…

I've had a good experience so far. Idk if I would attribute that to Pi or the GLM models. However, it feels nice not being constrained by usage.

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

#226

Post by windexh8er »

_s_a_m_ wrote: post #203
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..…

Doesnt Copilot Pro+ does the same?

Not even remotely close.

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

#227

Post by submain »

eshack94 wrote: post #221
Aurornis wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of the newer models available on OpenRouter are good, but I agree that none of them are a replacement for Opus 4.6 for coding. If you're trying to minimize cost then having one of the inexpensive models do exploratory work and simple tasks while going back to Opus for the serious thinking and review is a good hybrid model. Having the $20/month Claude plan available is a good idea even if you're primarily using O…

I've been thinking of doing this — using one of the "pretty good but not Opus 4.6-good, YET very cheap" models for the implementation part of more basic code features, AFTER first using Opus 4.6 high for the planning stage. Do you think this would be a decent approach? Also, which client would I use for this? OpenCode? I don't think Claude Code supports using other models. Thoughts?

I have been doing this and the results have been fairly good.

I use claude to build requirements.md -> implementation.md -> todo.md. Then I tell opencode + openrouter to read those files and follow the todo using a cheap (many times free) model.

It works 90% of the time. The other 10% it will get stuck, in which case I revert to claude.

That has allowed me to stay on the $20/month claude subscription as opposed to the $100.

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

#229

Post by slimebot80 »

I might be misunderstanding something.

He uses $70 for remaining credit and says that's a good thing because it rolls over

But spending $70 on an API (he says he still prefers Opus) is far less cost effective than a Max plan on Anthropic.

The article seems to be nudging us to setup OpenRouter but the premise isn't fully true. A bit of diversity is excellent, but the costs are going to (largely) prohibit it in reality?

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