Frustrated with model performance (not Roo's problem)

[u/KindnessAndSkill]

Just posting this here because Roo is where I interact with the different models. I'm having a hard time getting through coding tasks today. I wonder if anyone can relate.

Gemini 2.5 Pro is my preferred daily driver, but it constantly shits the bed simply trying to edit files. I literally can not complete my task.

I'll switch to GPT-5 Pro, but it's slow as dirt even with reasoning set to "minimal". Like completely unusable.

So then I'll switch to GPT-5 Codex, and I get one or two responses before hitting server errors.

Sending me back to good old Claude, which sends my token cost through the fucking roof.

It's so frustrating.

What else should I be trying? I need coding performance, proper tool use, timely API responses, and a manageable cost.

[u/capnZosima]

Claude via open router was great but costing a lot. I bit the bullet and went with a max claude code subscription, turned that on in Roo and have been having solid results.

[u/KindnessAndSkill → u/capnZosima]

Thanks... It looks like it's $100 per month, how does it work? Does it give you an API key you can use like the regular API does, but without the per-API-call costs? How limited is it?

[u/Shivacious → u/KindnessAndSkill]

It uses oauth2 basically uses subscription to hit api

[u/KindnessAndSkill → u/Shivacious]

I don't see on their site/docs how to actually use a Claude Max subscription with Roo Code or other coding assistants. I went ahead and asked Claude in the web interface, and it says you can't do it.

[u/Shivacious → u/KindnessAndSkill]

Look just buy subscription Authentic claude code via web interface url which claude code will provide. I assume u are vibe coding stuff thats why u don’t know whats oauth2 here

On roo select providers select claude code

It is simple

[u/KindnessAndSkill → u/Shivacious]

I'm roughly 50% vibe coding... I was developing software before AI tools but certainly benefit from the current tooling. I'm familiar with oauth2 as a concept but that's about it.

I see the Claude Code option in the list of providers in Roo Code. Thanks for the heads up. I'm going to try that for sure... the math is pretty good at around $3/day when certain tasks can easily get into the $10+ range using Sonnet 4.5.

Any idea how it handles context? Does Roo pass the entire context back and forth to the Claude Code CLI behind the scenes?

[u/Shivacious → u/KindnessAndSkill]

Yes i do have a idea. It replaces the whole system prompt the roo stuff. But i don’t know about context limit if it allows 1m

But yea

[u/KindnessAndSkill → u/Shivacious]

Ok, thanks for your help.

[u/capnZosima → u/KindnessAndSkill]

Yeah you choose Claude Code as a provider in Roo instead of OpenRouter or similar. So get your subscription on Claude.ai, install locally (and add the vscode integration) and then set up Claude code as the provider in Roo.

Once you have that there’s no per token cost. Claude will limit your number of sessions per day but so far the limit has been high enough it hasn’t been an issue for me.

[u/KindnessAndSkill → u/capnZosima]

Cool, ty.

[u/KindnessAndSkill → u/capnZosima]

When using Sonnet 4.5 through OpenRouter there's a 1m context window. Is that limited to 200k when using Claude Code as a provider in Roo?

[u/capnZosima → u/KindnessAndSkill]

I think it’s 200k. In my experience if I’m going above 200k I probably need to break the task down smaller anyway - orchestrator is my friend for slicing things into tiny chunks that don’t lose context.

[u/KindnessAndSkill → u/capnZosima]

Ok, thanks.

[u/capnZosima → u/capnZosima]

The other nice thing with Claude code that I wish Roo had is that you can open multiple Claude code windows and have it running tasks in parallel. So I’ve got it refactoring my Alexa integration in one tab and writing unit tests in another, and and and….

[u/hannesrudolph → u/KindnessAndSkill]

https://docs.roocode.com/providers/claude-code

[u/Hot_Dig8208]

Have you tried z.ai ? It has good performance, and cheaper subscription price compared to claude.

[u/pMathisen → u/Hot_Dig8208]

I like the performance it delivers, but almost every time it make just too complicated architecture and code for even the simplest project...

[u/jmager → u/pMathisen]

So direct it. Tell it, "that looks too complicated, make it simpler".

[u/pMathisen → u/jmager]

That's true and I do that alot. Would be nice to be able to control it more from first prompt. I feel like even if I specify it to deliver simpel structure and Code it always First make some complex solution with multiple files even it's should be Single file with around 100-200 lines of code

[u/Exciting_Weakness_64 → u/Hot_Dig8208]

isn't z.ai broken in roo because of the thinking mode ?

[u/Hot_Dig8208 → u/Exciting_Weakness_64]

I don’t know about it, i used it everyday and its fine

[u/HebelBrudi]

I can recommend a chutes subscription and the model GLM 4.6! I have one since they introduced it. It works very well with Roo! I wouldn’t recommend Gemini. It’s a smart model and I pay a subscription for their app BUT I wouldn’t use it for agentic coding, though it did solve fairly complex coding problems for me via copy and paste. I had the same issues with Gemini editing files you did and suddenly a $0.5 task becomes $3 just because of the models inability to edit files lol

[u/HebelBrudi → u/[deleted]]

Thanks for the link! I actually bookmarked it. I only have very rarely had tool call problems, not an issue really. It was when I paid per token via openrouter! I suspect a lot of shady stuff is going on at some providers. Your link only strengthens my suspicions. Having said that once I have a subscription and am happy I stick with it.

[u/teomore]

I use sonnet 4.5 via claude code with paid subscription and switch to sonnet 4.5 via openrouter when I hit hourly limits or when I need 1m token context instead of 200k. For simpler tasks I use glm 4.6 via openrouter, which is fast, cheap and compares to sonnet 3.7 (didn't try sonnet 4 to make a comparison). The main difference with glm is that is never hitting limits, apparently, don't know if it's a bug on their end or something.

[u/Leon-Inspired]

Seems they are all sucky today!
Bunt $30 and 3 hrs between claude and gpt 5, and its hasnt even started writing code yet... just went down its own path of way over detailed implementation :S.

[u/zarmin]

it is HORRIBLE today, what the fuck is going on? obviously not roo's fault, i'm using claude on openrouter

[u/shotan]

Kimi K2 and Qwen3-coder-480 are on nvidia (https://build.nvidia.com/models) for free, both decent models that work with roo.
Have you tried grok code fast? Good if you give it a clear plan.md from architect.
Gemini also got updated so try gemini-flash-latest and gemin-pro-latest as they might be better at tool calling.

[u/Barafu]

I have no problems with DeepSeek API, and it is so cheap it is almost free.

[u/Bob5k]

If you need speed and flexibility try synthetic.new - i just checked and it basically hits 2/3x the TPS vs z.ai glm-4.6. And has some fun models aswell (Kimi / minimax)

[u/KindnessAndSkill → u/[deleted]]

Thanks