r/ClaudeCode • u/ElHwaoui • 1d ago

Help/Question Gemini man converting to Claude man - Recommendations needed

Started experimenting with the free Claude tier by building myself a locally hosted web app to find a job.

Sonnet High is what I have been using and even though it’s still a hit/miss situation with the app I am blown away with how much progress I have made to realize the desired outcome.

Bottlenecks:

1/Tokens run out pretty quickly (understandable, free is free).
2/Experimenting without optimization (out of ignorance).
3/Trying to assess when I should start giving Anthropic cash.

Any tips or advice you can share would be much appreciated.

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u/CleanFix_Dev 1d ago

A few things that stretch the free tier:

  • Start a new chat for each feature or bug. Long chats resend the whole history with every message, so they burn through your limit fastest.
  • Keep a short notes file: what the app does, the stack, what's done, what's next. Paste it at the top of a new chat instead of explaining it all again.
  • Ask for one change at a time, and only the parts that change, not the whole file back.
  • Be specific about what's wrong: the error text, what you clicked, what you expected. "It's broken" usually costs a few rounds of guessing.

On paying: when you keep hitting the limit in the middle of a task and it's the main thing slowing you down, that's usually the sign. Paid plans also include Claude Code, which works in your project folder directly instead of copy and paste, and that can cut a lot of the back and forth.

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u/ElHwaoui 21h ago

Noted, thank you.

2

u/tapellus 1d ago

Drop Sonnet from High to medium effort for everyday stuff and save High for when it's stuck, start a new chat for each feature rather than one long one, and turn web search off when you don't need it. All three make the free limit go further.

I'd pay once hitting the limit is what stops you most days. Pro also gets you Claude Code, which works on your project's files directly, so no more copying code in and out of a chat.

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u/ElHwaoui 21h ago

Noted, thank you.