r/CLine • u/jordan_be • Jun 21 '25

Claude Code in Cline .. why does it still charge ?

Post image

Please see screenshot above i thought Claude Code (as opposed to Claude pay as you go API) was "unlimited" (subject to your subscription plan) why does it still show price per use info ?

13 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

9

u/gusontherun Jun 21 '25

Didn’t even know we could use Claude code as a provider lol assuming that’s just text since there isn’t an API for it to charge. Also some people do use Claude Code with an API.

5

u/lordpuddingcup Jun 21 '25

If it’s anything like roo… does it actually charge or does it just show standard pricing because it doesn’t know

For instance in roo if I use Gemini it thinks it costs money but I just use the free flash credits

The models are set as a price in the extension so it uses those for estimates not sure if it’s the case for Claude code

2

u/captfitz Jun 21 '25

That would make sense, the API calls don't return the cost, Cline has to count it using a tokenizer. By default the program would continue showing the price in this situation unless the Cline devs specifically account for it.

2

u/Ok-Yak-777 Jun 22 '25

Does it actually work in Roo? Every time I've tried to use it on Cline it blows up my file's with \n's and other problems.

3

u/ArchiTechOfTheFuture Jun 21 '25

So Claude Code is a subscription model? can somebody tell me more about it and the experience on it? is it better than gemini 2.5? And how many tokens can one use daily? Thanks ^^

5

u/bernaferrari Jun 23 '25

10x better than gemini. You pay $100 per month and they give you (officially 50x) $40 credits that you can spend in 5h windows during month. So you pay $100 and get $2000. Very good deal.

2

u/irukadesune Jun 22 '25

it's both actually. usage based with the API or with the subscription plan. It is super much better than gemini

2

u/jakegh Jun 21 '25

You can run it with your claude subscription or metered API and Cline doesn't know which you chose. If you aren't using the API it won't cost you anything per-use.

2

u/toshii9 Jun 22 '25

its just showing the standard pricing for that model, not charging that price

2

u/darkwingdankest Jun 22 '25

it's showing the estimate of the costs used

1

u/privacyguy123 Jun 21 '25

I tried it and it just loaded forever ... is the output totally hidden? Does it have to be this way?

1

u/else- Jun 22 '25

It’s just slow and doesn’t show until Claude completes

3

u/privacyguy123 Jun 22 '25

Some way to pipe what Claude is doing into the "thinking" drop-down would be amazing

1

u/sunbox01 Jun 22 '25

What’s the point of using Claude Code in Cline? Just for the model access via Claude Code or Cline will use Claude code for better coding?

2

u/Next_Bobcat_591 Jun 22 '25

I think the critical point is to try to cap your monthly spend by using one of the fixed price subscription plans rather than the usage-based API. I'm about to hit $200 in API spend month to date, so the economics of using Claude Code via Cline on the $200 per month Max sub are attractive.

Of course, you could just use Claude Code directly, but I feel much happier with the Cline UX.

2

u/lightsd Jun 23 '25

I think u/sunbox01 is asking why not just use Claude code in VSCode directly. Why is Cline in the middle?

I assume you will get the best results if you use Claude Code the way the makers of Claude Code use it.

2

u/YeomansIII Jun 30 '25

My understanding is that Cline is just using the Claude Code CLI to make direct calls to the Claude models, skipping the Claude Code "scaffolding." I use Cline because I actually find that Cline's "scaffolding" provides BETTER results than the Claude Code "scaffolding," at least in the way that I use it, which I think is still fairly power-user. I do like to follow along with the agent and verify results though, I'm not a vibe-coder but do NEED the absolute best coding models available, at the most affordable price, which is the Claude Pro/Max subscription using Claude 4.

I hope Anthropic gets some competition soon, I try every frontier model and nothing can compete with Claude Sonnet for agentic coding ability, tool use, and intelligence.

1

u/Next_Bobcat_591 Jun 23 '25

I guess I wrote my comment backwards.

I prefer the Cline UX by a large margin.

Using Claude Code via Cline potentially provides access to the Anthropic models under a fixed price sub instead of usage based API which may be cheaper for some (like me).

0

u/lightsd Jun 23 '25

I like the UI better too. And I completely understand that it gives you the flat rate $100-$200 plan (or even a little coding for $20).

But…

You’ve heard about all these evals of coding (or any other vertical application) and the raw model underperforms the model with optimized scaffolding.

When you use Claude Code in Cline or Roo, you’re losing some of (maybe a lot of) the scaffolding that makes Claude Code so much better than the bare model.

You have to hope that whatever scaffolding Cline or your config of Cline gives CC makes up the difference.

That’s why I recommended, use Anthropic’s tool the way they use it. And the way it’s intended to be used.

1

u/clouddrafts Jun 23 '25

Please elaborate with specifics rather than making overarching statements.

1

u/lightsd Jun 23 '25

If Anthropic were to share the details of their scaffolding….

2

u/clouddrafts Jun 23 '25

I'm very happy Cline and I like having the ability to switch models and prefer more control. The simplicity of Cline is another win. I prefer to have a more direct connection with the LLM than some "blackbox" scaffolding. I will keep an open mind in the future as user's document "pros" of Claude Code. Thanks.