11 guides
What Claude Code really costs and practical ways to cut it: cheaper model backends, routing by task, cache and off-peak discounts, and tighter prompting habits.
Free tier AI coding in 2026, honestly assessed: provider free credits, OpenRouter free models, NVIDIA NIM, and local models. What's genuinely useful and what isn't.
Coding plans vs pay-per-token in 2026: how each bills, the break-even point, rolling usage windows, and a simple method to pick the cheaper option for your usage.
The best cheap AI coding plans compared in 2026: Z.AI GLM from $18/month, Alibaba's $50 plan, MiniMax token plans, and MiMo. Limits, links, and which to pick.
The cheapest AI coding APIs in 2026 compared: DeepSeek, GLM, Kimi, MiniMax, MiMo, and OpenRouter routes. Pricing links, pay-per-token vs plans, and how to pick.
Xiaomi MiMo pricing explained: current MiMo V2.5 and V2.5 Pro API rates, cache-hit discounts, no long-context surcharge, token plans, free trial access, and cost estimates.
Kimi K2 pricing explained: Thinking vs Turbo vs K2.5 vs K2.6, cache-hit discounts, provider price differences, and how to estimate your coding cost on Moonshot.
Set up the GLM Coding Plan as a cheap Claude Code backend from $18/month. Plan tiers, 5-hour usage windows, Claude Code config, and how to get more from it.
Alibaba Coding Plan vs pay-per-token for Qwen: the ~$50/month plan with 90k requests and bundled models, versus DashScope token billing. How to pick by your usage.
Qwen3 Max API pricing explained, plus how to use it cheaper: cache discounts, the Alibaba coding plan, and when qwen3-coder-plus or qwen3.5-plus is the better buy.
DeepSeek V4 pricing explained with current V4 Flash and V4 Pro API rates, cache-hit discounts, Anthropic/OpenAI base URLs, and how to estimate coding cost.