4 ms·

I feel unstoppable with Claude Code Max. I never thought I'd pay $200 per month for any developer tool, yet here we are, and I also couldn't be happier with it.

deadbabe 1y ago
Would you pay $400?
- esafak 1y ago
  Don't give people ideas.
  - deadbabe 1y ago
    Other professions pay a lot for their tools, and developers are loaded with cash.
    - sunaookami 1y ago
      >developers are loaded with cash Maybe in the US? I will never pay 100$ for a subscription and I despise that people normalized it by even buying this stuff instead of saying "no, that's way too expensive".
      - artursapek 1y ago
        Why not? If you charge $50/hr and it saves you even just two hours a month, it’s a profitable trade.
        Oreb 1y ago
        That “if” doesn’t apply to all of us, though. Not everybody is paid by the hour. I’d love to try something like Claude code, but $100 per month is way too expensive for me, and it probably wouldn’t even give me a single extra dollar of income. I think I’ll just wait for the time when local LLMs will be good enough to be a viable alternative.
        deadbabe 1y ago
        By the time you can run good enough local LLMs without splurging on sufficiently powerful hardware, those LLMs will look like toys compared to whatever cloud based LLMs are available.
        artursapek 1y ago
        I'm not paid by the hour, it's just basic math on what my time is worth
      - deadbabe 1y ago
        Well bucko it’s time to open your wallet. There’s creatives out there who spend at least $1000/month in subscriptions for tools, but without those tools they could never do most of the work they do. And some who buy physical gear like photographs and videographers pay even way more than that for equipment. Soon it will be the same for developers. Developers really are a spoiled bunch when it comes to paying for things, many will balk at paying $99/year just to publish stuff on an App Store. Everyone just wants free open source stuff. As expectations on developer productivity rises, you will be paying for these AI tools no matter how expensive they get, or you will just be gentrified out of the industry. The choice is yours.
      - dgfl 1y ago
        I work in a cleanroom to fabricate semiconductor devices and I spend hundreds of euros per hour to use specific tools which mostly just use electricity and maintenance. Should we complain that it’s too expensive or should we use them because they’re worth the price? Things have a price for a reason. It’s up to you whether it’s worth paying that or not.
        sunaookami 1y ago
        We are talking about personal use and then people don't pay for it out of their own pocket but the company's. At least I hope so because otherwise it would be very dumb.
        dgfl 1y ago
        I’m also talking about personal use. These are research devices for my PhD. I’m obviously not paying out of pocket, but my funding agency does. I’m trying to convey that if a tool increases your efficiency by more than it costs then it’s worth paying for it regardless of how expensive it is. It’s how the economy works.
        deadbabe 1y ago
        There is no free lunch. Even if a company pays for it instead of you, their LLM costs per developer will be factored in to what they are willing to provide as compensation. So one way or another, the end result is you get paid for less for the same amount of work today.
- lopatin 1y ago
  That's a great question. Probably not. IDK. I'm also only paying this much to maintain momentum on a personal project. I also know in a year, these LLM products will change drastically, pricing tiers will transform, etc.. So I can't predict what will happen in a year but things will probably be cheaper. Edit: On the other hand, the state of the art tools will also be much better in a year, so might keep that high price point! Am I rationalizing my purchase? Possibly. If I'm not using it daily, I will cancel it, I promise :)
  - deadbabe 1y ago
    I think there is definitely room to price AI tools way higher. Developers are being slowly boiled like frogs right now. Getting addicted to AI tools to the point they can’t work without them, that’s when you raise the price.
    - lopatin 1y ago
      I see it as an investment into my future. I was able to make progress on a personal project with Claude Code which I failed at using other tools. Yes, I will, and apparently have, paid multiple hundreds of dollars to get the project release ready. But I definitely need to keep in mind that I'm not going to at that velocity all the time, which would make the $200 price point not justifiable long term.
ed_mercer 1y ago
Can you elaborate? How is it better than Cursor?
- koakuma-chan 1y ago
  Try it
- remixff2400 1y ago
  I just started with it, so still getting my feet wet, but it's been better than any other tool at really grokking my codebase and understanding my intent. The workflow feels better than a strict IDE integration, but it does get pricey really quickly, and you pretty much need at least the $100 Max subscription. Luckily, it should be coming with the regular $20 Pro subscription in the near future, so it should be easier to demo and get a feel for it without having to jump in all the way.

deadbabe 1y ago

Would you pay $400?

esafak 1y ago
Don't give people ideas.
- deadbabe 1y ago
  Other professions pay a lot for their tools, and developers are loaded with cash.
  - sunaookami 1y ago
    >developers are loaded with cash Maybe in the US? I will never pay 100$ for a subscription and I despise that people normalized it by even buying this stuff instead of saying "no, that's way too expensive".
    - artursapek 1y ago
      Why not? If you charge $50/hr and it saves you even just two hours a month, it’s a profitable trade.
      - Oreb 1y ago
        That “if” doesn’t apply to all of us, though. Not everybody is paid by the hour. I’d love to try something like Claude code, but $100 per month is way too expensive for me, and it probably wouldn’t even give me a single extra dollar of income. I think I’ll just wait for the time when local LLMs will be good enough to be a viable alternative.
        deadbabe 1y ago
        By the time you can run good enough local LLMs without splurging on sufficiently powerful hardware, those LLMs will look like toys compared to whatever cloud based LLMs are available.
        artursapek 1y ago
        I'm not paid by the hour, it's just basic math on what my time is worth
    - deadbabe 1y ago
      Well bucko it’s time to open your wallet. There’s creatives out there who spend at least $1000/month in subscriptions for tools, but without those tools they could never do most of the work they do. And some who buy physical gear like photographs and videographers pay even way more than that for equipment. Soon it will be the same for developers. Developers really are a spoiled bunch when it comes to paying for things, many will balk at paying $99/year just to publish stuff on an App Store. Everyone just wants free open source stuff. As expectations on developer productivity rises, you will be paying for these AI tools no matter how expensive they get, or you will just be gentrified out of the industry. The choice is yours.
    - dgfl 1y ago
      I work in a cleanroom to fabricate semiconductor devices and I spend hundreds of euros per hour to use specific tools which mostly just use electricity and maintenance. Should we complain that it’s too expensive or should we use them because they’re worth the price? Things have a price for a reason. It’s up to you whether it’s worth paying that or not.
      - sunaookami 1y ago
        We are talking about personal use and then people don't pay for it out of their own pocket but the company's. At least I hope so because otherwise it would be very dumb.
        dgfl 1y ago
        I’m also talking about personal use. These are research devices for my PhD. I’m obviously not paying out of pocket, but my funding agency does. I’m trying to convey that if a tool increases your efficiency by more than it costs then it’s worth paying for it regardless of how expensive it is. It’s how the economy works.
        deadbabe 1y ago
        There is no free lunch. Even if a company pays for it instead of you, their LLM costs per developer will be factored in to what they are willing to provide as compensation. So one way or another, the end result is you get paid for less for the same amount of work today.
lopatin 1y ago
That's a great question. Probably not. IDK. I'm also only paying this much to maintain momentum on a personal project. I also know in a year, these LLM products will change drastically, pricing tiers will transform, etc.. So I can't predict what will happen in a year but things will probably be cheaper. Edit: On the other hand, the state of the art tools will also be much better in a year, so might keep that high price point! Am I rationalizing my purchase? Possibly. If I'm not using it daily, I will cancel it, I promise :)
- deadbabe 1y ago
  I think there is definitely room to price AI tools way higher. Developers are being slowly boiled like frogs right now. Getting addicted to AI tools to the point they can’t work without them, that’s when you raise the price.
  - lopatin 1y ago
    I see it as an investment into my future. I was able to make progress on a personal project with Claude Code which I failed at using other tools. Yes, I will, and apparently have, paid multiple hundreds of dollars to get the project release ready. But I definitely need to keep in mind that I'm not going to at that velocity all the time, which would make the $200 price point not justifiable long term.

ed_mercer 1y ago

Can you elaborate? How is it better than Cursor?

koakuma-chan 1y ago
Try it
remixff2400 1y ago
I just started with it, so still getting my feet wet, but it's been better than any other tool at really grokking my codebase and understanding my intent. The workflow feels better than a strict IDE integration, but it does get pricey really quickly, and you pretty much need at least the $100 Max subscription. Luckily, it should be coming with the regular $20 Pro subscription in the near future, so it should be easier to demo and get a feel for it without having to jump in all the way.