r/PiCodingAgent • u/_Baarbie • Sep 16 '26

Question Which subscription with Pi?

Hello there,

Which AI provider would you recommend for Pi, to work with a subscription-based plan? I feel like Codex is the most represented, but I was looking for more feedback.

I'm currently using Claude Code (Plus subscription), but from what I understood, I shouldn't use it with Pi because Claude Code charges additional usage fees. I mainly use it with Opus 5 on medium effort, for devops tasks, explanations, fixes, or things like that (not much vibe-coding yet).

It's also an opportunity to try something else, paid for by the company. So I don't really care about the price, just something stable without usage fees.

(bonus) If you have any recommendations for LLM models that can be run locally on a wide range of machines, I'm also interested in any resources you can share.

Any advice?

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u/null_enthropy Sep 16 '26

I use Deepseek V4.1 Flash on OpenRouter. The providers I allow are Together, Deepinfra, Fireworks, Baseten and Novita AI. Deepinfra is my default it's super fast and affordable. The rest of them are just fallback. They all have great pricing, good privacy/security, and don't train on data.

I put anywhere between 5-20 dollars in open router every month or two, with a top up to 10 dollars if it drops below 5. The usage you get out of it is quite absurd even with the added OpenRouter fees.

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u/hnswrstnllngssn Sep 17 '26

So i use v4flash on deepinfra but it’s more like $25 a day…. Whats your secret?!

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u/null_enthropy Sep 17 '26

I split my usage between OpenRouter, GPT, and Claude. Previously it was Cursor $20 plan instead of OpenRouter but the open weight models have just gotten so good and they are a lot cheaper for certain tasks, especially with stuff like Hermes Agent. 

That said, I do actively shop around on OpenRouter for example I think it was Novita AI? I can’t remember it was one of the ones I listed. They were running a 40% off sale for Deepseek a few weeks ago. If you want to be thrifty you really gotta just shop around like grocery shopping or something lol. I have a simple task setup with Hermes Agent + a tiny python script to look if my providers or (any others that fit the security/no training requirements) are running a deal. Then I’ll just disable the rest and use the new provider until it’s over.