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Oh wow. Reading your comment guarantees I'll never use Claude Code. I use Aider. It's awesome. You explicitly specify the files. You don't have to do work to l

Oh wow. Reading your comment guarantees I'll never use Claude Code. I use Aider. It's awesome. You explicitly specify the files. You don't have to do work to limit context.

Jerry2 2y ago
>I use Aider. It's awesome. What do you use for the model? Claude? Gemini? o3?
- m3kw9 2y ago
  Gemini 2.5 pro is my choice
- BeetleB 2y ago
  Currently using Sonnet 3.7, but mostly because I've been too lazy to set up an account with Google.
  - aitchnyu 2y ago
    Get an Openrouter account and you can play with almost all providers, I was burning money on Claude, tried V3 (blocked Deepseek provider for being flaky, let the laypeople mock them) and experimental and GA Gemini models.
LeafItAlone 2y ago
Aider is a great tool. I do love it. But I find I have to do more with it to get the same output as Claude Code (no matter what LLM I used with Aider). Sure it may end up being cheaper per run, but not when my time is factored in. The flip side is I find Aider much easier to limit.
- Game_Ender 2y ago
  What are those extra things you have to do more of? I only have experience with Aider so I am curious what I am missing here.
simonw 2y ago
With Claude Code you can at least type "/code" at any point to see how much it's spent, and it will show you when you end a session (with Ctrl+C) too. The output of /cost looks like this: > /cost ⎿ Total cost: $0.1331 Total duration (API): 1m 13.1s Total duration (wall): 1m 21.3s
- BeetleB 2y ago
  Aider shows how much you've spent after each command :-). It shows the cost of the command as well as the session.
jjallen 2y ago
Not having to specify files is a humongous feature for me. Having to remember which file code is in is half the work once you pass a certain codebase size.
- m3kw9 2y ago
  That sometimes work sometimes doesn’t and takes 10x time. Same with codex. I would have both and switch between them depending on what you feel will get it right better
- carpo 2y ago
  Use /context <prompt> to have aider automatically add the files based on the prompt. It's been working well for me.
aitchnyu 2y ago
After switching to Aider, I realized the other tools have been playing elaborate games to choose cheaper models and to limit files and messages in context, both of which increase their bills.
boredtofears 2y ago
Yeah, I tried CC out and quickly noticed it was spending $5+ for simple LLM capable tasks. I rarely break $1-2 a session using aider. Aider feels like more of a precision tool. I like having the ability to manually specify. I do find Claude Code to be really good at exploration though - like checking out a repository I'm unfamiliar with and then asking questions about it.

Oh wow. Reading your comment guarantees I'll never use Claude Code. I use Aider. It's awesome. You explicitly specify the files. You don't have to do work to limit context.

Jerry2 2y ago

>I use Aider. It's awesome. What do you use for the model? Claude? Gemini? o3?

m3kw9 2y ago
Gemini 2.5 pro is my choice
BeetleB 2y ago
Currently using Sonnet 3.7, but mostly because I've been too lazy to set up an account with Google.
- aitchnyu 2y ago
  Get an Openrouter account and you can play with almost all providers, I was burning money on Claude, tried V3 (blocked Deepseek provider for being flaky, let the laypeople mock them) and experimental and GA Gemini models.

LeafItAlone 2y ago

Aider is a great tool. I do love it. But I find I have to do more with it to get the same output as Claude Code (no matter what LLM I used with Aider). Sure it may end up being cheaper per run, but not when my time is factored in. The flip side is I find Aider much easier to limit.

Game_Ender 2y ago
What are those extra things you have to do more of? I only have experience with Aider so I am curious what I am missing here.

simonw 2y ago

With Claude Code you can at least type "/code" at any point to see how much it's spent, and it will show you when you end a session (with Ctrl+C) too. The output of /cost looks like this: > /cost ⎿ Total cost: $0.1331 Total duration (API): 1m 13.1s Total duration (wall): 1m 21.3s

BeetleB 2y ago
Aider shows how much you've spent after each command :-). It shows the cost of the command as well as the session.

jjallen 2y ago

Not having to specify files is a humongous feature for me. Having to remember which file code is in is half the work once you pass a certain codebase size.

m3kw9 2y ago
That sometimes work sometimes doesn’t and takes 10x time. Same with codex. I would have both and switch between them depending on what you feel will get it right better
carpo 2y ago
Use /context <prompt> to have aider automatically add the files based on the prompt. It's been working well for me.

aitchnyu 2y ago

After switching to Aider, I realized the other tools have been playing elaborate games to choose cheaper models and to limit files and messages in context, both of which increase their bills.

boredtofears 2y ago

Yeah, I tried CC out and quickly noticed it was spending $5+ for simple LLM capable tasks. I rarely break $1-2 a session using aider. Aider feels like more of a precision tool. I like having the ability to manually specify. I do find Claude Code to be really good at exploration though - like checking out a repository I'm unfamiliar with and then asking questions about it.