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.
If anything I would consider switching to OpenAI subscription (if I didn't despise them even more than Anthropic as a company), but converting to API use seems completely infeasible to me. I'd have to severely cut back on my use for not much benefit, other than having maybe an agent thats a little less jank than CC.
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 services and not using them regularly then you shouldn't be on a $200 subscription any more than you should be on a $700 a month gym membership when you go every 3 months for 15 minutes.
1. What do you use the hooks for?
2. Do you use an editor alongside the CLI to review code or only examine the diffs?
OpenCode picked up my CLAUDE.md files and skills straight away, and I got similar performance to Opus 4.6.
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...
And once you start using an account with multiple users, it's even more useful to have all those features!
Not relying on a subscription and having the right to do exactly what you want with your API key (using it with any tool/harness...) is also a big plus to me.
if that wasn't the reason, hey that's actually a great way to launder money (not financial advice).
Or what are you really saying here? I don't understand how that's related to "you don't have the right to do what you want with the API Key", which is the FUD part.
Any insights / suggestions / best practices?
at first i thought i was goring to build lots of extra plugins and commands but what ended up working for me is:
- i have a simpel command that pulls context from a linear issue
- simple review command
- project specific skills for common tasks
Now I'm happy with agents as the models and harnesses have improved significantly but the token usage comes at a cost.
Also ditching Claude Code is mistake. It is quite capable model, and still great value. I would keep it, even if it's just for code reviews and planning. Anthropic allows pro plans use in Zed.
Because GH is accessing the API behind the scenes, you should face less degradation when using Sonnet/Opus models compared to a Claude subscription.
Keep a ChatGPT $20 subscription alongside for back-and-forth conversations and you'll get great bang for buck.
- context is aggressively trimmed compared to CC obviously for cost saving reasons, so the performance is worse
- the request pricing model forces me to adjust how I work
I like the VSCode integration and the MCP/LSP usage surprised me sometimes over the dumb grep from CC. Ironically VSCode is becoming my terminal emulator of choice for all the CLI agents - SSH/container access and the automatic port mapping, etc. - it's more convenient than tmux sessions for me. So Copilot would be ideal for me but yeah it's just tweaked for being budget/broad scope tool rather than a tool for professionals that would pay to get work done.
GHCP at least is transparent about the pricing: hit enter on a prompt= one request. CC/Codex use some opaque quota scheme, where you never really know if a request will be 1,2,10% of your hourly max, let alone weekly max.
I've never seen much difference with context ostensibly being shorter in GHCP, all of the models (in any provider) lose the thread well before their window is full, and it seems that aggressive autocompaction is a pretty standard way to help with that, and CC/Codex do it frequently.
Then we've had wildly different results. Running CC and GH copilot with Opus 4.6 on same task and the results out of CC were just better, likewise for Codex and GPT 5.4. I have to assume it's the aggressive context compaction/limited context loading because tracking what copilot does it seems to read way less context and then misses out on stuff other agents pick up automatically.
It turns it into a very good value for money, as far as I'm concerned.
https://www.techradar.com/pro/bad-news-skeptics-github-says-...
I might be paranoid but I feel that access to models will become more constraint in the future as the industry gets more regulated.
We are not the only one. I found other people online experiencing the same issue. It is hard to tell how wide-spread this is but it is strange to say the least.
I switched to OpenCode Zen + GitHub Copilot. For some reason, Claude Code burns through my quota really quickly.
Due to the quota changes, I actually find myself using Claude less and less
If I just let opencode zen run claude opus to plan and execute, I'd spend $20 in like 5 minutes lol
hhthrowaway1230•2h ago
kisamoto•1h ago
Sadly Zed seems to add 10% so it's still more worthwhile to use OpenRouter.
Kelteseth•1h ago
kisamoto•1h ago
cbg0•1h ago
glitchcrab•1h ago
cedws•1h ago
OpenRouter is a valuable service but I’ll probably try to run my own router going forward.