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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

#81

Post by pixel_popping »

numlocked wrote: post #42
pixel_popping wrote: post #31

It should be noted about Openrouter that you aren't allowed to expose the access to end users, it has to be for internal usage only, which can be fatal as they have made waves of account banning lately (without warnings).

You are absolutely allowed to expose access to end users, as long as you continue to abide by terms of service. We have hundreds, if not thousands, of apps built on openrouter that in turn have end users of their own. We showcase many of them on our /apps ranking page!

TOS says: access the Site or Service for purposes of reselling API access to AI Models or otherwise developing a competing service;

So yes obviously you can do what you want as long as you abide by terms of service, but the terms of service does NOT allow you to resell the API.

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

#82

Post by pixel_popping »

Deathmax wrote: post #73
himata4113 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was actually wondering about this since I've seen like 3 comments talking about the same thing, would it happen to be related to money laundering due to the availability of the crypto payment method?

The comments are all from the same author. OpenRouter recently started enforcing account-level regional restrictions for providers that enforce it (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google) - ie blocking accounts that look like they are being used by users in China. The regional restriction used to be based on the Cloudflare edge worker IP's geolocation and enforced upstream, so a proxy/server running inside of supported regions wo…

Which further strengthen the fact that you can't do anything you want with API keys, even if you pay for them.

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

#83

Post by embedding-shape »

pixel_popping wrote: post #79
embedding-shape wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And then you go on HN and post "you don't have the right to do what you want"? Yeah, FUD and good riddance if so.

You are not allowed to resell Openrouter as an API yourself, so for example if you make a service that charge per token, you can't use Openrouter API for that, this is specified in their ToS, so no, you can't do what you want, what FUD? Quote from their own TOS: access the Site or Service for purposes of reselling API access to AI Models or otherwise developing a competing service;

Yeah, you're not allowed to do things that are specifically spelled out in the ToS, how is this surprising? Of course you don't get "unlimited access to do whatever you technically can", APIs never worked like that, why would they suddenly work like that?

When you say "you don't have the right to do what you want with the API Key" it makes it sound like specific use cases are disallowed, or something similar. "You don't have the right to go against the ToS, for some reason they block you then!" would have been very different, and of course it's like that.

Bit like complaining that Stripe is preventing you from accepting credit card payments for narcotics. Yes, just because you have an API key doesn't mean somehow you can do whatever you want.

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

#84

Post by himata4113 »

pixel_popping wrote: post #82
Deathmax wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The comments are all from the same author. OpenRouter recently started enforcing account-level regional restrictions for providers that enforce it (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google) - ie blocking accounts that look like they are being used by users in China. The regional restriction used to be based on the Cloudflare edge worker IP's geolocation and enforced upstream, so a proxy/server running inside of supported regions wo…

Which further strengthen the fact that you can't do anything you want with API keys, even if you pay for them.

there is a huge gap between 'doing whatever you want' and 'illegal activities' as well as upstream restrictions (out of openrouters control)

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

#85

Post by cbg0 »

spwa4 wrote: post #77
cbg0 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering how much data they already have from everything that's on GitHub, I doubt you would make a dent boycotting their AI product.

And don't you think they're going to realize soon that it's also pretty good at "doing penetration testing" for your company when it's already trained on your company's source code?

It's already more than "pretty good": https://www.anthropic.com/glasswing

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

#86

Post by vanillameow »

blitzar wrote: post #48
vanillameow wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I ran this just now and for a small web-app I built I used over $50 in a single day. This was using superpowers plugin and almost exclusively coordinating through Opus. Could I get by with 100$ a month without the subscription? Maybe, but I pay for the convenience of just being able to throw Opus with lavish plugins at it (with 5h limits that are, in my opinion, pretty reasonable). I don't really WANT to have to thin…

Depending on your workflow, in the spirit of reallocating $100/Month subscription, it may be worth dropping to the $20/Month plan (or equivalent at other providers) and then pay as you go on the (rare) occasions you "build a small web-app I built and used over $50 in a single day". But at that point we are just min/maxing the details, and all I can say is if you are on a $100/$200 a month subscription to any of these…

Nah I get you, but for me personally, I do use CC a ton. It's building me so many useful internal tools right now, and deep research is also bootstrapping me into some new hobbies etc. I think I'm kind of in a rare-ish (maybe not so much on HN, but for the general population) spot where I'm not really trying to make some SaaS get quick rich scheme, but just directing CC to make apps that would take me a few days to make in a few hours, smoke test them, and solve a problem I had before. (e.g. photo tagging automation, MCP connections for personal services for documentation of chats or setting up todos, ansible playbooks for VMs, setting up data pipelines from external APIs for home automation...)

I deffo get more perceived value out of it than the 100$ I pay. Could I get MORE value with the same 100$? imo only through OpenAI (no harness lock in and more lenient limits), but I deeply dislike the way their company is evolving. Admittedly, recent launches from Anthropic like managed agents and Mythos Preview don't make me very hopeful the individual developer pricing is here to stay, but I'll use what I can get while I can get it.

Could I get my required value with less than 100$? Mayyybe I could get by with like, three Anthropic 20$ plans? or 2x20$ and an OAI 20$? but this is so min-maxy that I just don't really want to bother. Pay by token would kill my workflow instantly. I'd have to add so many steps for model selection alone. I'll cross that bridge when Anthropic cuts me off.

I agree though most people on the $200 plans are either just not using them or in some deep AI psychosis. I'd like to exclude myself from these groups, but the pipeline to AI psychosis seems very wishy washy to begin with (the thread the other day about iTunes charts being AI dominated had a surprising amount of people defending AI music, imo).

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

#87

Post by pixel_popping »

himata4113 wrote: post #84
pixel_popping wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which further strengthen the fact that you can't do anything you want with API keys, even if you pay for them.

there is a huge gap between 'doing whatever you want' and 'illegal activities' as well as upstream restrictions (out of openrouters control)

What illegal activity? What another user pointed out about crypto isn't it, I'm talking about the fact that you can't open a service through Openrouter and charge your users per Token (aka "reselling" Openrouter), since when is this illegal?

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

#88

Post by pixel_popping »

embedding-shape wrote: post #83
pixel_popping wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are not allowed to resell Openrouter as an API yourself, so for example if you make a service that charge per token, you can't use Openrouter API for that, this is specified in their ToS, so no, you can't do what you want, what FUD? Quote from their own TOS: access the Site or Service for purposes of reselling API access to AI Models or otherwise developing a competing service;

Yeah, you're not allowed to do things that are specifically spelled out in the ToS, how is this surprising? Of course you don't get "unlimited access to do whatever you technically can", APIs never worked like that, why would they suddenly work like that? When you say "you don't have the right to do what you want with the API Key" it makes it sound like specific use cases are disallowed, or something similar. "You do…

That's very different from the Stripe example, as opening a service like Openrouter isn't illegal, so that's only coming from it being opinionated, nothing to do with the law. And my example was for not so specific use cases but quite general one which is just to open let say a service like Opencode Zen and use Openrouter as a backend, this is explicity forbidden by Openrouter and it isn't against the law, that's not just a "niche use case".

Are we allowed yes or not to make a service that charge per Token to end-users, like giving access to Kimi K2.5 to end-users through Openrouter in a pay per token basis?

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

#89

Post by indigodaddy »

numlocked wrote: post #14
Computer0 wrote: post #5

I have had credits on open router that haven’t been deleted since near the projects launch, I believe 365 days is not a rule but rather a right reserved.

COO of OpenRouter here. Thats right — we haven’t done it to date but we can’t have unlimited liabilities stacking up forever. At some point we will start expiring credits from accounts that have seen zero activity in over a year.

What if I deposited $10, and have lots of recent activity on free models and have barely touched the $10 for payg models?

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

#90

Post by sourcecodeplz »

criley2 wrote: post #40
woutr_be wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does Claude Code compare to OpenCode Zen? I’m on the $20/month Claude plan, and was considering OpenCode Zen as well. Due to the quota changes, I actually find myself using Claude less and less

I haven't tried $20 claude code recently, but I've used OpenCode Zen primarily so I can play with opensource/chinese models which are very inexpensive. I'd spend $0.50-$1.00 on a single claude opus 4.6 plan mode run, then have a chinese model execute the plan for like $0.10-$0.15 total. I'd keep context short, constantly start new threads, and get laser focused markdown plans and knowledgebase to be token efficient.…

Which chinese models do you use and do you use any for specific tasks?
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