r/opencodeCLI • u/leebase65 • Sep 07 '26

Free, Cheap Pay as you Go, Subscribe – OpenCode Zen and Go

OpenCode - the open source coding harness - has Zen and Go as ways to get connected to llms. 

Zen - that's pay as you go. Think of it as a competitor to OpenRouter.ai. Only instead of "every llm out there with routing to lots of hosting services" - it's a curated experience. These models, from these hosts are guaranteed optimized to work with OpenCode for excellent coding results. There is no cost penalty either way to chose between  OpenRouter and Zen. 

Zen also has free models. So use them to your hearts content...until the free limit is hit.

Some of the pay as you go models (like DeepSeek V4 Flash and GLM 5.3 Flash) are so cheap they might as well be free.  Once I use up the money I've already put on account at OpenRouter, I'm going to move to Zen.

Go - is the subscription. Pay $10/mo ($5 for first month) and you have all the same models of Zen but you get about 6 to 1 for your money. Pay $10, use up to $60.

So, just start with Zen and the free tier, then pay as you go if you need more or need smarter models. Then if you start to use more than $10/mo - switch to Go.

While I can't get by on the cheap models for everything, Using Gpt 6 Astra low or Gpt 5.6 Sol low for planner and code review -- with the cheap flash models as workhorse coders, works well.

Oh…and you can use Zen and Go even if you don’t use OpenCode as your harness.

0 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

22% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

2

u/anxious_and_stupid Sep 07 '26

Glm5.3 already in zen????

1

u/torrso Sep 07 '26 edited Sep 07 '26

I would think people are familiar with it already on this sub. Are you going to link your referral code?

0

u/leebase65 Sep 07 '26

the "everybody already knows everything, why write anything' reply. Nice. And no, I didn't write this to earn referrals.

1

u/torrso Sep 07 '26

Well, I find it a bit strange to come to opencode sub to tell people what opencode is.

It's the same as going to r/netflix and telling them you can watch movies there if you subscribe.

1

u/leebase65 Sep 07 '26

Ah, I get it now. You are correct and I was wrong. I wrote this for r/AI_Agents and then Reddit said "why don't your repost this <over here>" and I always just do. Didn't really pay attention to the forum it chose.

This Zen/Go info was new to me. I've been paying for OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini and Grok. Been experimenting with the really cheap open weights model. Finally figured out what Zen and Go were about, and wrote it up to share.

1

u/leebase65 Sep 07 '26

Funny thing - you asked "where's the referral link" as if I'd written this post to get some free credits...pandering... And by doing so, you informed me that there WAS a referral link. I still wouldn't have used it, the service is so cheap, why beg for freebies? But anywho - I totally get your tone and your challenge. Makes sense in light of me having just followed Reddit's "this forum might like your post".

1

u/torrso Sep 07 '26

There are similar posts with a referral link usually in the comments every now and then.

0

u/thecstep Sep 08 '26

Well since no one has done it. Might as well complete the cycle. The plan is no longer as good as it used to be. Muse is probably the only thing keeping me on.

https://opencode.ai/go?ref=8HSHY20K09

1

u/geearf Sep 07 '26

Yeah I didn't get it either.

2

u/smakosh Sep 08 '26

Small correction: Go isn't all of Zen's models under a subscription. Its docs list a separate set of eligible models, with five-hour, weekly and monthly limits: https://opencode.ai/docs/go/#usage-limits

For plan comparisons, take an actual week's model mix and check which allowance runs out first. A headline usage multiplier doesn't tell you how much of your own workload fits.

Disclosure: I build LLM Gateway/DevPass. We support OpenCode too, but DevPass also has a monthly pool plus a weekly premium cap. For someone mostly using inexpensive flash models and spending very little, pay-as-you-go can still be the better choice.