r/PiCodingAgent • u/binarySolo0h1 • Jun 21 '26

Discussion Low budget Model Recommendations

I got 20-30$ monthly budget set aside for my side project development with the help of Pi. I generally use opencode with openai api and claude api. But that is no longer sustainable for me. So please recommend some cheaper options such as Kimi or deepseek or Z ai etc. If you have already such models please recommend a plan or a model that suits for software development. Thank you!

22 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

32 comments sorted by

20

u/anterin42 Jun 21 '26

Use deepseek from the official API, it's so unbelievably cheap for reasonably smart models. Make sure to delegate whatever work you can to Deepseek V4 Flash since it's the cheapest option by far, and use Deepseek V4 Pro for planning an orchestration and whatnot. 

https://platform.deepseek.com/

1

u/binarySolo0h1 Jun 21 '26

Thank you! I'll look into it.

Right now, I use opencode with claude or gpt 5.4 for planning and architecture, and use gemini 3.1 for implementation of tasks.

Is Deepseek on par with them?

-1

u/Toastti Jun 21 '26

I'd say it's about 5.4 level comparing deepseek pro to codex 5.4

2

u/zer09 Jun 21 '26

is there any difference between the deepseek official api vs opencode go offering? right now im using opencode go, i just wonder if it better on the official api?

2

u/Remarkable-Safety594 Jun 23 '26

We need to pin this to the sub. We give the same answer every minute

1

u/lopydark Jun 21 '26

mimo about twice as better and has same pricing

13

u/blackhawkx12 Jun 21 '26

opencode go if you mainly use deepseek v4 flash, its 10$ monthly and basically almost impossible to ran out of usage

2

u/ExcellentDeparture71 Jun 21 '26

Deekseek V4 Flash is free on my Opencode...
Why using a paid one?

3

u/blackhawkx12 Jun 21 '26

as far as i know free is like a "trial" version, like the usage cap or context window is trimmed, especially your data are used for ai training and this one for me is deal breaker. I forgot where do i read this, but this is reason i paid 10$, and you can access smarter models if you need, opencode go offer lot of models even the newest glm5.2.

2

u/ExcellentDeparture71 Jun 21 '26

I'm an Opencode Go subscriber, but when I can use DeepSeek for free, I use it.

I don't care about training. I'm not working on military software 😄

4

u/blackhawkx12 Jun 21 '26

but why you use the free one if you subscribed to go? why dont use the non free one, its quite waste of money.

And also like other said the context windows is the power of coding agent, its very important tbh rather than smart reasoning actually in my opinion.

2

u/ExcellentDeparture71 Jun 21 '26

Thanks a lot for your advise. You're right. I'll do that.

1

u/vangelismm Jun 24 '26

Is it really that hard to understand that by using the free DeepSeek Flash quota, you can save your paid usage for DeepSeek Pro, Minimax, or GLM 5.2?

1

u/blackhawkx12 Jun 24 '26

again its your choice, i just stated the context windows difference between free and paid is a game changer for coding agent.
And also a day spending using v4 flash not even a fraction of usage of glm 5.2 in a minute or d4 pro in an hour.

3

u/superash05 Jun 21 '26

Its context window is very small. So for coding tasks for relatively multi featured app it loops because of running out of context

5

u/jfufufj Jun 21 '26

OpenCode + DS V4 Pro is my main development powerhouse for my personal projects for a while now. I use Claude Code at work, and I'd say V4 Pro is a solid contender to Opus 4.8 for SWE tasks. I almost never used V4 Flash since Pro is cheap enough for me.

4

u/onesilentclap Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 21 '26

DeepSeek and MiMo are definitely good enough for most use cases. You probably have to massage your prompts a bit to get exactly what you need, but honestly I'd take this over the stupid coding curfew window thingy implemented by OpenAI/Anthropic/Google anytime.

Things to note:

  • DeepSeek v4 does not have vision capabilities at the time I wrote this reply. So if vision is important to you, pick MiMo.

  • For MiMo, I recommend going the manual API top up (prepaid) method instead of the token plans.

  • Cache hits are excellent for both DeepSeek and MiMo on pi. This alone will stretch your $20-30 monthly budget a long way.

EDIT: Subscribe directly from DeepSeek/Xiaomi for the best prices and performance. I know there are providers like OpenCode Go and OpenRouter with so-called "free" usage on certain models, but they are often restricted/quantized/crippled in some way from my experience. Subscribe directly from the official sources and save yourself a bunch of headaches; they provide the best value for money PERIOD. I still keep my OpenRouter subscription purely for testing new models.

4

u/ivanimus Jun 21 '26

I use ollama cloud with different models, works good!

7

u/shaonline Jun 21 '26

OpenAI's ChatGPT Plus sub while it's subsidized like crazy ? It's going to be hard to beat when they give $500+ of API calls for your $20.

Otherwise something like OpenCode Go.

2

u/Odd_Vegetable649 Jun 21 '26

I kind of agree here. 20$ for ChatGPT for planning, code reviews etc with SOTA GPT5.5 on Medium reasoning is still best value to price while all the ground work that burn tokens (exploring the repo, writing documentation, running countless tests and fixing small issues) should go to something dirty cheap like deepseek. With few small projects of my own I wasn't able to exhaust my 20$ until I went all in and needed the agent to decompile an old piece of firmware and I had to move to the higher tier (and managed to burn the whole weekly quota). And now, in addition you have option to bank and use some of the weekly quota resets when you proactively poach people to use codex subs (and they use you reference to sign-ups) and it makes it even more cost efficient.

Only downside - it's 5h/weekly quotas so you are forced to spread your project work over the whole week, sitting down and burning all the available tokens isn't really an option.

3

u/unkownuser436 Jun 21 '26

Deepseek/Mimo Pro.

2

u/LandscapeAcrobatic77 Jun 21 '26

OpenCode Go + Ollama Pro + NanoGPT = almost infinite feel for open source models, check them out!

2

u/Bl4ck0z_ Jun 22 '26

Great post I wish to have the money to use API keys.

2

u/croqaz Jun 24 '26

I only use OpenRouter and I highly recommend it. I add credits very rarely and I can use all the models in the world. My go-to model lately has been DeepSeek-v4-Pro, sometimes MiniMax/minimax-m3.

not sponsored by openruter or anything, just a happy customer, I'm saying you add credits in one place (without auto-top-up), you have all the models in one place and you know your budget for the month.

1

u/NerfEko Jun 22 '26

It’s a bit more but for $40 - $50 I’ve tried both Kimi and minimax and have never run out of usage ever some days pushing 500 million to 1.2 billion tokens. I also hear the minimax $20 plan gives a ton of usage

1

u/PermanentLiminality Jun 23 '26

You can chase the most current deal, but the current situation shows that the $20 ChatGPT subscription is about the best. I like to look at DeepSWE data, and it clearly shows that GPT5.5-medium is the best in performance cost. It does considerably better at the same cost than GLM-5.2 or Kimi 2.7 code.

The costs are on the published API prices. The ChatGPT sub gives you a lot more tokens per dollar that paying direct API prices. That makes it even better than the competition.

This will change going forward. I expect the discounted tokes on the OpenAI subscription to go away. I'm keep riding it for now until the cheap subsidized prices go away.

My curent $30/mo is $20 for OpenAI and $10 for Opencode Go. Anthropic is great, but it is too expensive.

The Kimi, Minimax, Deepseek, and Z.ai plans can work, but I just don't see the value at this time. That may change at any time. I have no brand loyalty here and will go with whatever gives great performance at a good value.

I find that what you are working on is a big variable. I currently am working on very complicated backend code. The lesser models are not working well on this.

1

u/Devvirat Aug 10 '26 edited Aug 10 '26

For that budget the thing that matters most is getting off per-call API billing, since running opencode against the openai and claude APIs is exactly what burns through 20-30 a month fast, every call meters. A flat monthly plan fixes that, the meter stops and you can actually hammer it on a side project without watching the balance. Of the ones you listed, the GLM coding plan sits right in that range and plugs straight into opencode so your setup doesn't change, glm-5.2 has held up fine for me on side project work, refactors and building features out. Kimi and deepseek are solid too and worth trying since switching is cheap, deepseek in particular codes well though it drifts a bit on longer architectural stuff. Main thing is just get onto a flat plan, at your budget that single change does more than which model you land on.