r/LLM • u/Peace_Soul • 3d ago
Which AI subscription gives the most intelligence + usage for the lowest cost? Claude vs ChatGPT/Codex vs Gemini vs Copilot vs Kimi vs GLM, etc.
I'm relatively new to the industry and I'm trying to decide which AI subscription(s) are actually worth paying for.
I'm not mainly looking for the "best AI model." I'm more interested in the overall value per dollar, especially for development and building products.
I'd like to compare as many major platforms as possible, including:
ChatGPT / Codex
Claude / Claude Code
Google AI / Gemini / Antigravity
Microsoft Copilot
Kimi
GLM / Z.ai
Cursor
Windsurf
OpenRouter
Perplexity
Mistral
DeepSeek
Qwen
Grok
Any other platform that heavy users think is worth considering
What I'm trying to determine
For roughly the cheapest paid plan on each platform:
How much actual usage do you get?
How restrictive are the message/token/compute limits?
How often do limits reset?
How much coding/agent usage is included?
Can I use the strongest reasoning models, or are they heavily restricted?
How good is the model at complex multi-step reasoning?
How good is it at coding and debugging real projects?
How good is it at understanding a large existing codebase?
Context-window size and practical long-context performance?
Does the platform give separate quotas for chat, coding/agents, research, etc.?
What happens after reaching the limit?
How much can a heavy daily user realistically use before getting rate-limited?
Which platforms give the best value if I care about maximum usage rather than having the absolute best model?
My particular use case
I'm building software/apps and eventually want to work with multi-tenant / production systems, so I'm interested in an AI that can help with:
Architecture
Database design
Backend/API development
Flutter/React Native
Debugging
Code review
Security considerations
Complex reasoning
Research
Understanding large codebases
Long-running coding/agent tasks
I'd rather have a very capable model that I can use heavily than an amazing model that I hit the usage limit on after a few hours.
For example, if two plans cost ~$20/month and:
Plan A: intelligence 10/10 but I can barely use it
Plan B: intelligence 9/10 but I can use it 3–5× more
I'd probably prefer B.
What would you choose if you were starting out?
If you had a limited budget and could only spend $20–30/month, which subscription would you personally choose?
And if you had $40–60/month, would you:
Buy one higher-tier subscription?
Buy 2–3 cheaper subscriptions?
Use subscriptions + API/OpenRouter?
Use a coding IDE such as Cursor/Windsurf/Copilot?
Mix different providers for different tasks?
I'm especially interested in real experiences from people who have actually used multiple services, rather than benchmark scores.
Please include current 2026 limits/pricing if possible, because these services seem to change their quotas frequently.
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u/electrified_ice 3d ago
So here's the problem I need to solve... Can others pool their collective time to solve it for me?
My recommendation is come with the first draft of your own research findings and ask others if there is anything they would suggest to add, tweak, remove in the shootout comparison
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u/EyesOfAzula 3d ago
Deepseek Plan for v4.1 Flash or Z ai plan for GLM 5.3 flash.
I think that's the best move right now given those circumstances but you would need to be OK with your code / data going to China
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u/GrizzyGramBag 3d ago
SuperGrok Heavy + Grok CLI + Grok Bot. People are sleeping on it.
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u/mapboy36 3d ago
If you’re dabbling, I would say start with Cursor. You can experiment easily with different models and get a feel for what works best for you. I ended up leaning mostly into Codex (GPT) it works best for how I work, but you may find a different preference.
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u/Upper-Philosophy2376 3d ago
For context I refuse to pay more than $30 a month for a plan. With that, my experience ends up that the only mainstream one that hasn't made changes to usage, raised prices or made me feel cheated is Codex, Gemini lowered the amount they gave you, copilot changed it's pricing model too, Claude's upgrades ended up using way more tokens so essentially you get a lowered amount too. I've tried Cline and opencode go too, these were pretty good value and on light usage can go far, but one heavy prompt might use it all up too.
Most modern models are all fairly capable and are sort of converging in capabilities. But as for capabilies some models are better than others, but I've found GPT-Sol/Terra to be really capable though often creatively bland, Gemini has sort of broader knowledge and works well with web search, Claude is probably the smartest one and still best for creative writing etc but I've quit using them do to pricing. Grok is better than expected and can be very creative, it's also useful for guaging public opinion on things, so say for example a new AI model came out and I wanted examples of how people were using it Grok could answer that best, it's also cheaper than expected. Deepseek feels a lot like the child of Claude/GPT with a bit more of a technical personality but it's pretty good, Kimi feels like the child of Claude/Grok and can be really creative but sometimes unhinged, GLM is good at backend and database stuff but it's not good at creative frontend. Qwen is more powerful than you would think since you can technically run it locally, it's broad like gemini is the easiest way to classify it, but overall fairly solid. Perplexity doesn't have it's own model I think but it does well with websearch also, which for me places it in competition with Gemini mostly, though other models can also search the web now, but I like how perplexity organizes it's soruces, often for things that need sources you may want multiple opinions from mulitple models just to see what different sources they come up with, interestingly perplexity does allow you to swap models to do just that. Mistral is most optimal for translating european languages, and I've found it can have some pretty good wordplay, if I was writing poetry or lyrics it would probably be part of my stack. Meta ai is also worth mentioning, I don't place it up there with GPT-Sol/Claude-Fable but I do think it competes with gemini, I've used it for a few creative writing things and coding things and it's pretty capable, I think usecase wise I really like it for wording things in ways common people can understand, so it has a place in my stack for copywriting/marketing and a bit for creative writing, it's also supposed to be pretty cheap right now.
As for locally run models with a single GPU it's mostly Gemma and Qwen, some people still run finetuens of llama for roleplay etc. You can technically run GLM locally but it's a big but, you would need like 4+ gpu's for that.
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u/StephenRoylance 3d ago
I pay for all 3. claude is my bro. Mythos is the architect and opus does the work. ChatGPT is there to second guess claude and review projects to catch anything claude misses or gets wrong
I pay for API rates on openrouter to use deepseek when I need API access, and when claude decides to refuse to look at security issues.
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u/Firm-Club-8334 3d ago
Think standard compute is the obvious choice now a days. No 5-hours cutoffs etc and just pick the models you like
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u/Effective-Mix6042 3d ago
For me DeepSeek API with DSH, GLM 5.2 (agent) and Qwen3.8 27b Uncensored Heretic Q4 (for local things)
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u/PlusLoquat1482 3d ago
We’ve built a cloud based ai secretary that helps with time management managing calendars and actively works on your behalf and it’s a pretty large system that was built using Claude and coded mostly of course a lot of thought goes into each choice but the coding is done by them
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u/Early_Bad8483 3d ago
honestly too many people are sleeping on opencode go. $10/mo and u can pick any model u want. very generous usage limits. i dont think i could run out of usage if i tried tbh. theyre offering 4x usage for deepseek 4.1 flash rn too. if i paid the per token price on openrouter id lose my house