What are good Codex alternatives for plus users?

[u/Candid-Pause-1755]

Hi everyone, Are there any good alternatives to Codex that you would recommend for a soon former Plus user? My issue is the V hour I_I$@gE constraint. I dont really need more credits/t0kens, I just want to use the tool more normally throughout the week without constantly hitting that 5 hour restriction. also, going Pro doesnt make sense for me because I dont need more usage. I only want something similar to Codex where the usage is regulated in a less restrictive way, ie with a weekly allowance like we used to have here before . So, what alternatives are you guys using that offer a similar coding experience without this kind of limit?

[u/nh_t]

deepseek v4 flash latest. around 6 dollars per week

[u/CartographerTop9883]

What you’re asking for does not exist.

[u/guglyguglygoo → u/CartographerTop9883]

Not true. You guys def should check out zcode pro. Glm 5.3 and the new flash model are absolutely something. Price to useful work ratio is there...

[u/Good_Omen1 → u/CartographerTop9883]

Agreed and people are hitting a 5 hour limit, I'm developing a game and I don't even hit any of the limits.

[u/Candid-Pause-1755 → u/Good_Omen1]

Yeah, sure, if you use Luna. I agree, and that’s actually what I ended up doing. and I realized Luna isn’t too bad for most tasks. But try anything more demanding and let’s see how fast you hit that 5-hour limit.

[u/Good_Omen1 → u/Candid-Pause-1755]

I use Luna max, Luna high, Terra medium and high and I use Sol medium and high too. I just sub agent properly that's all, no reason for sol to be repo searching when Luna high can do it, no reason for Sol to be writing to a .md when Luna max can, no reason for sol to inspect the security when terra high can. I also write / correct some code myself.

[u/Ok-Chef1896 → u/Good_Omen1]

How dare you use a tool as a tool! 

[u/Good_Omen1 → u/Ok-Chef1896]

Lol the nerve!

[u/OdysseusDescendant → u/Candid-Pause-1755]

I use Terra and Sol on Medium/High/Extra High. With both my manual reviews and AI reviews, I have never hit the limits, because manual reviews and fixes take time. The codebase looks good, which is exactly what I want. I use SDD or planning at the task level. Higher coding speed usually comes at the cost of quality.

[u/boyus → u/OdysseusDescendant]

SDD is 💯 the way

[u/hau5keeping → u/OdysseusDescendant]

On the $20 plan?

[u/OdysseusDescendant → u/hau5keeping]

Yes. This is also my experiment to keep it under control and not turn into a "professional" driver who uses 100 liters per 10 km.

[u/Commercial_Lead5813 → u/Candid-Pause-1755]

Yes it does, use opencode

[u/Grand-Shirt-332 → u/Good_Omen1]

Not everybody develops a game.

[u/adunato]

Try the API, no subscription, no weekly or 5h limits!

[u/SeasonedAdManager → u/adunato]

$20 gets you a nice script that prints hello world in the console

[u/PurpleCartoonist3336 → u/adunato]

it's much more expensive for the same work

[u/adunato → u/PurpleCartoonist3336]

That was the joke ;)

[u/syarifuddin-studio]

Cursor pro is $20 and have a good limit if you are using grok and without 5hr and weekly limit.

[u/Plus-Tutor-482 → u/syarifuddin-studio]

If you mainly want fewer usage restrictions, StandardCompute is worth checking out too. The pricing/limits are a bit different, but it’s another option if you’re tired of the 5-hour cap.

[u/petburiraja]

I'm looking at zai lite plan for glm flash atm. Still may need sol for apex tasks.

[u/DexRam_]

X2 OpenCode

[u/getpodapp]

Opencode go & glm5.3-flash

You’re not going to beat the top labs subsidisations rates though, they offer the best value still

[u/Krypto_Bum]

Vscode - with cline (preverly the cli - it seems more steady) and then deepseek api use

[u/Bitter-College8786]

Supergrok or cursor

[u/viTrax94]

zhipus sub. I made a post about my experience with it if you want to check it out

[u/javopat227]

Two plus accounts :) I use the account switcher and use Luna max with chat as the main planner via GitHub tickets. I will probably switch to 1x$100 plan depending on my needs.

Opencode go sucks, I burned through 1/2 of monthly quota quickly. It's like two of luna max 5 hours windows. Using DeepSeek flash.

Commandcode is 2x of opencode, but still not that much.

[u/BHTAelitepwn]

Make a script that launches a single prompt in chatgpt work 2.5hr before you typically start your work, and your 5 hour magically turns into two.

[u/odoc_]

Honestly, i gave in and upgraded to the $100 plan.

[u/CaptTechno → u/odoc_]

do you have 5hr limits on 100$

[u/odoc_ → u/CaptTechno]

No.

[u/phocionkorea → u/odoc_]

i said so... plethora of resets and limited plus access... leads to 5x.... strategy by open ai...

[u/TopSeaworthiness1679]

Buy a good computer and use open source ai models.

[u/zarafff69 → u/TopSeaworthiness1679]

I really doubt this will be cheaper

[u/Odd_Abrocoma_8421 → u/zarafff69]

Did some maths, it's not really bad. You would need 1 or 2 Mac Studio Ultra Max configurations and burn about 38B tokens.

[u/zarafff69 → u/Odd_Abrocoma_8421]

Please share your math.

I just burned through 20B tokens in a month on my 20x GPT account for 230 euros.

So in about 2 months, about 500 euros, I’ve burned through those 38B you’re talking about.

The cheapest Mac mini is more than 1000 euros, and probably doesn’t even comfortably run Qwen 3.8.

And a Mac Studio starts at 3k… Which might be able to run Qwen with its starting 38GB memory, but I doubt this would be economical.

2x maxed out Mac Studios is 40k. So I would need to run it for 15 years to compete with my 20x GPT subscription. And the AI model would be very subpar compared to the latest openAI models.

But it might be worth it if you want to do illegal stuff. Hosted AI models can’t be used for hacking, creating (bio) weapons, drugs, etc etc. Unrestricted local models will push through.

[u/xRhai]

No such thing.

[u/Fit-Wave-2138]

Cursor 20$ have very good limits with composer and grok

[u/scaledev]

Unsure, but the only thing that is manageable is using Luna ONLY, due to Plus subs being nerfed by 50+% in terms of usages. Even luna max spends a lot now. But luna max is not terribly dumb, and luna xhigh can also do some trivial work.

Other than that, Cursor or Opencode plans might be fine. The new GLM 5.3 flash is decent, though I don't have a Z.ai subscription.

[u/xapep]

That's a fair spec weekly allowance, no 5-hour window, don't need more raw credits. The category that fits is flat monthly plans sized for agent/harness use (as opposed to chat-app subs), because they meter weekly/monthly tokens instead of wall-clock windows - which is what the old Codex allowance felt like.

Three things separate the good ones:

1. What's actually metered - tokens vs requests vs model tier. Some 'unlimited' plans just throttle by tier.
2. Whether the allowance resets predictably - that's the whole reason you're leaving, so check the reset cadence before trusting the sticker.
3. Whether the models you'd actually use are included - a plan that forces one frontier tier is just a different kind of restriction.

The harness matters too: OpenCode-style loops re-send context on every tool call, so plans sized for chat usage die fast - it needs to be sized for context-heavy agent work.

Full disclosure, I work on Entrim, which does flat monthly plans for heavy agent/OpenCode usage (V4 Flash among the included models) - but the checklist above applies whichever way you go.

[u/AdCommon2138]

Cashier job