Is it worth using these models if I have a claude code subscription already? The appeal of lower cost is nice but I haven't gotten over the switching cost yet.
FYI, you can use your Claude subscription pricing with OpenCode via Meridian[0], which also makes it easier to try out other models when they come out. You can also use your other subscriptions in OpenCode with CLIProxyAPI[1]. The switching cost was relatively high, mostly from claude code plugins but completely worth it. I'm now mostly using GLM-5.3 and Codex models via OpenCode and barely using Claude which seemed unfathomable less than two months ago.
I'm sometimes tempted to use these sorts of proxies, but I always worry that the hacks they have to use to wrap the upstream tools and APIs is going to mess with my downstream harness/agent.
Use a unified proxy that lets you switch between models seamlessly. We are far from an equilibrium in this market and you will continue to have FOMO no matter who you pick if you go all in on one company
I use the $200 plan w/ Anthropic and run out of tokens half way through the week and supposedly they are progressively reducing the limits on all their subs even further.
At some point I will switch, $200 buys a lot of tokens on OpenRouter.
Is the conventional wisdom that the subscription price/token is better than the API price/token not valid any more? Or is access to model diversity worth the increased per token costs?
If anything, it's going to be more expensive. Price/performance ratio isn't there yet for frontier open weight models.
But regardless, you definitely should use a harness where switching models on the fly is easy. There's a reason why Anthropic uses their own proprietary formats/conventions anywhere they can - to lock you in when inference eventually commoditizes.
yes, but the GLM subscription gives you barely more usage than you'd get just paying API rates. it's not subsidized like the claude or chatgpt subscriptions are.
Comments
Is it worth using these models if I have a claude code subscription already? The appeal of lower cost is nice but I haven't gotten over the switching cost yet.
FYI, you can use your Claude subscription pricing with OpenCode via Meridian[0], which also makes it easier to try out other models when they come out. You can also use your other subscriptions in OpenCode with CLIProxyAPI[1]. The switching cost was relatively high, mostly from claude code plugins but completely worth it. I'm now mostly using GLM-5.3 and Codex models via OpenCode and barely using Claude which seemed unfathomable less than two months ago.
[0] https://github.com/rynfar/meridian
[1] https://github.com/router-for-me/CLIProxyAPI
edit: reworded for clarity
I'm sometimes tempted to use these sorts of proxies, but I always worry that the hacks they have to use to wrap the upstream tools and APIs is going to mess with my downstream harness/agent.
Use a unified proxy that lets you switch between models seamlessly. We are far from an equilibrium in this market and you will continue to have FOMO no matter who you pick if you go all in on one company
I use the $200 plan w/ Anthropic and run out of tokens half way through the week and supposedly they are progressively reducing the limits on all their subs even further.
At some point I will switch, $200 buys a lot of tokens on OpenRouter.
Is the conventional wisdom that the subscription price/token is better than the API price/token not valid any more? Or is access to model diversity worth the increased per token costs?
Same here. I'm switching to the Codex plan. It just doesn't go very far now. Especially if you use fable at all.
Yes. Please seriously try other models. See relevant thread here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49296740
At least by API usage, they aren't yet lower cost than subscriptions. Not sure about GLM's subscription plans though.
GLM subscription is better than API, but significantly worse than Codex, even when used outside peak hours.
If anything, it's going to be more expensive. Price/performance ratio isn't there yet for frontier open weight models.
But regardless, you definitely should use a harness where switching models on the fly is easy. There's a reason why Anthropic uses their own proprietary formats/conventions anywhere they can - to lock you in when inference eventually commoditizes.
no, at subscription prices claude is a better value than GLM.
They're only a better value if you're paying API rates
You can have a subscription for GLM.
yes, but the GLM subscription gives you barely more usage than you'd get just paying API rates. it's not subsidized like the claude or chatgpt subscriptions are.
It changed recently but previously subscription had prompt allowance, not token allowance. So probably accidentally was very genrous.