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Get a subscription and use claude code - that's how you get actual reasonable economics out of it. I use claude code all day on the max subscription and maybe t

Get a subscription and use claude code - that's how you get actual reasonable economics out of it. I use claude code all day on the max subscription and maybe twice in the last two weeks have I actually hit usage limits.

tgtweak 1y ago
Is it considerably more cost effective than cline+sonnet api calls with caching and diff edits? Same context length and throughput limits? Anecdotally I find gpt4.1 (and mini) were pretty good at those agentic programming tasks but the lack of token caching made the costs blow up with long context.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- bavell 1y ago
  I'm on the basic $20/mo sub and only ran into token cap limitations in the first few days of using Claude Code (now 2-3 weeks in) before I started being more aggressive about clearing the context. Long contexts will eat up tokens caps quickly when you are having extended back-and-forth conversations with the model. Otherwise, it's been effectively "unlimited" for my own use.
  - bgirard 1y ago
    YMMV I'm using the $100/mo max subscription and I hit the limit during a focused coding session where I'm giving it prompts non-stop. Unfortunately there's no easy tool to inspect usage. I started a project to parse the Claude logs using Claude and generate a Chrome trace with it. It's promising but it was taking my tokens away from my core project.
    - bartman 1y ago
      Check out ccusage, it sounds like the tool you’re describing: https://github.com/ryoppippi/ccusage https://github.com/ryoppippi/ccusage
      - bgirard 1y ago
        That's neat. According to the tool I'm consuming ~300m tokens per day coding with a (retail?) cost of ~125$/day. The output of the model is definitely worth $100/mo to me.
        j45 1y ago
        This is a good bar to know. I see the warnings but not sure how much I really have left. Do you mostly use opus?
        bgirard 1y ago
        Mostly sonnet because of the usage limits.
        j45 1y ago
        Makes sense. Seeing some posts about how the system can slow down or decrease in quality at certain times of day.
      - j45 1y ago
        Neat tool thanks!
    - symbolicAGI 1y ago
      ccusage on GitHub.
- MarcelOlsz 1y ago
  If you use Claude Code with a subscription and run `ccusage` [0] you can get an idea of your "true usage" and cost. [0] https://github.com/ryoppippi/ccusage https://github.com/ryoppippi/ccusage
- j45 1y ago
  Yes, it’s much better. It uses way less tokens or much more effectively when running locally.
seneca 1y ago
Is there a way to sign up for Claude code that doesn't involve verifying a phone number with Anthropic? They don't even accept Google Voice numbers. Maybe I'm out of touch, but I'm not handing out my phone number to sign up for random SaaS tools.
- tagami 1y ago
  use a burner
- cma 1y ago
  It's maybe the leading subscription based tool in our field, not a random SaaS tool.
  - what 1y ago
    They have zero need for a phone number.
    - eddythompson80 1y ago
      Come on now. You're about to run their cli and let it send any random file on your machine to their API intentionally. Trust them a little.
    - senko 1y ago
      There are a lot of fraudsters out there who will happily create thousands of accounts with valid CCs that will fail on first actual charge.[0] I wouldn't be surprised if asking for a phone number lowers the fraud rate enough to compensate for the added friction. [0] Incidentally, this is also why many AI API providers ask for your money upfront (buy credits) unless you're big enough and/or have existing relationship with them.
      - yencabulator 1y ago
        Sounds like a trivial fix even for monthly billing, just bill at the start of the month not at the end.
teruakohatu 1y ago
> Get a subscription and use claude code I find the token/credit restrictions on Opus to be near useless even when using Claude Code. I only ever switch to it so get another model's take on the issue. Five minutes of use and I have hit the limit.
- Tostino 1y ago
  Yup. Getting to try three or so prompts that it messes up and then running out of quota for hours is entirely useless to me.
- closewith 1y ago
  Is it a max subscription? We have the $200 plans for work and despite only using Opus, we rarely hit the limits. CCUsage suggests the same via API would have been ~$2000 over the last month (we work 5 hours a day, 4 days a week, almost always with Claude).
  - ngai_aku 1y ago
    Are you part time?
    - closewith 1y ago
      In a way. Those are my company's working hours.
- ygouzerh 1y ago
  It seems for Opus the Max plan is almost always needed for being useful
drusepth 1y ago
Is there any documentation on what the max sub usage limit is? A coworker tried it and was booted off Opus within just a couple hours due to "high usage". I haven't made the jump since I expect my $3k/mo on API would just instantly fly by a $200/mo sub and then I'd just be back on API again, but if it could carve out $1k-2k of costs for a little bit of time managing sub(s) it might be worth it.
- generalizations 1y ago
  It's not documented - that's the whole point. They can scale it back and forth opaquely, letting the high volume users get more usage whenever the low-volume users aren't using it much. If it's explicit and transparent, you don't get the benefit of that, since it would be gamed by unscrupulous power users. Also there's a cli argument that lets you specify the model. try `claude --help`.
thomasahle 1y ago
That's fine if you use it for private use. Doesn't work if you're building a product using Claude.

tgtweak 1y ago

Is it considerably more cost effective than cline+sonnet api calls with caching and diff edits? Same context length and throughput limits? Anecdotally I find gpt4.1 (and mini) were pretty good at those agentic programming tasks but the lack of token caching made the costs blow up with long context.

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
bavell 1y ago
I'm on the basic $20/mo sub and only ran into token cap limitations in the first few days of using Claude Code (now 2-3 weeks in) before I started being more aggressive about clearing the context. Long contexts will eat up tokens caps quickly when you are having extended back-and-forth conversations with the model. Otherwise, it's been effectively "unlimited" for my own use.
- bgirard 1y ago
  YMMV I'm using the $100/mo max subscription and I hit the limit during a focused coding session where I'm giving it prompts non-stop. Unfortunately there's no easy tool to inspect usage. I started a project to parse the Claude logs using Claude and generate a Chrome trace with it. It's promising but it was taking my tokens away from my core project.
  - bartman 1y ago
    Check out ccusage, it sounds like the tool you’re describing: https://github.com/ryoppippi/ccusage https://github.com/ryoppippi/ccusage
    - bgirard 1y ago
      That's neat. According to the tool I'm consuming ~300m tokens per day coding with a (retail?) cost of ~125$/day. The output of the model is definitely worth $100/mo to me.
      - j45 1y ago
        This is a good bar to know. I see the warnings but not sure how much I really have left. Do you mostly use opus?
        bgirard 1y ago
        Mostly sonnet because of the usage limits.
        j45 1y ago
        Makes sense. Seeing some posts about how the system can slow down or decrease in quality at certain times of day.
    - j45 1y ago
      Neat tool thanks!
  - symbolicAGI 1y ago
    ccusage on GitHub.
MarcelOlsz 1y ago
If you use Claude Code with a subscription and run `ccusage` [0] you can get an idea of your "true usage" and cost. [0] https://github.com/ryoppippi/ccusage https://github.com/ryoppippi/ccusage
j45 1y ago
Yes, it’s much better. It uses way less tokens or much more effectively when running locally.

seneca 1y ago

Is there a way to sign up for Claude code that doesn't involve verifying a phone number with Anthropic? They don't even accept Google Voice numbers. Maybe I'm out of touch, but I'm not handing out my phone number to sign up for random SaaS tools.

tagami 1y ago
use a burner
cma 1y ago
It's maybe the leading subscription based tool in our field, not a random SaaS tool.
- what 1y ago
  They have zero need for a phone number.
  - eddythompson80 1y ago
    Come on now. You're about to run their cli and let it send any random file on your machine to their API intentionally. Trust them a little.
  - senko 1y ago
    There are a lot of fraudsters out there who will happily create thousands of accounts with valid CCs that will fail on first actual charge.[0] I wouldn't be surprised if asking for a phone number lowers the fraud rate enough to compensate for the added friction. [0] Incidentally, this is also why many AI API providers ask for your money upfront (buy credits) unless you're big enough and/or have existing relationship with them.
    - yencabulator 1y ago
      Sounds like a trivial fix even for monthly billing, just bill at the start of the month not at the end.

teruakohatu 1y ago

> Get a subscription and use claude code I find the token/credit restrictions on Opus to be near useless even when using Claude Code. I only ever switch to it so get another model's take on the issue. Five minutes of use and I have hit the limit.

Tostino 1y ago
Yup. Getting to try three or so prompts that it messes up and then running out of quota for hours is entirely useless to me.
closewith 1y ago
Is it a max subscription? We have the $200 plans for work and despite only using Opus, we rarely hit the limits. CCUsage suggests the same via API would have been ~$2000 over the last month (we work 5 hours a day, 4 days a week, almost always with Claude).
- ngai_aku 1y ago
  Are you part time?
  - closewith 1y ago
    In a way. Those are my company's working hours.
ygouzerh 1y ago
It seems for Opus the Max plan is almost always needed for being useful

drusepth 1y ago

Is there any documentation on what the max sub usage limit is? A coworker tried it and was booted off Opus within just a couple hours due to "high usage". I haven't made the jump since I expect my $3k/mo on API would just instantly fly by a $200/mo sub and then I'd just be back on API again, but if it could carve out $1k-2k of costs for a little bit of time managing sub(s) it might be worth it.

generalizations 1y ago
It's not documented - that's the whole point. They can scale it back and forth opaquely, letting the high volume users get more usage whenever the low-volume users aren't using it much. If it's explicit and transparent, you don't get the benefit of that, since it would be gamed by unscrupulous power users. Also there's a cli argument that lets you specify the model. try `claude --help`.

thomasahle 1y ago

That's fine if you use it for private use. Doesn't work if you're building a product using Claude.