Does anyone actually pay API costs out of their own pocket? It's about 10x cheaper to just get a codex or chat gpt subscription, it's so heavily subsidized compared to the API that I'm sure it would be cheaper to use frontier models on a subscription plan rather than paying API prices for deepseek flash.
I do. For local dev work, I'm mostly using jetbrains' Junie, I can swap between a collection of models from google, openai, anthrophic.
I've had more than a few people tell me "oh, it's so much cheaper to use a $20 claude account" or "i've never hit a limit ever using my openai". Inevitably.. I end up reading/hearing "oh, I need to give it another couple hours to start using it again"... I've never hit that with my approach, even if it's costing me a bit more. Being able to work when I want when I have time has some value.
I also have openai and anthropic direct API billing set up for hosted and client projects that need to call out to an LLM service.
I thought Air was JB's multi-model interface? What is Junie? (I see the buttons, but am very confused by JB's AI offerings in general)
Is it worth the ~10x extra cost over the subscriptions? (This is obviously a leading question). Also, I think you can use OpenAI's subcription login with Air, but not Claude's.
Junie is their agent(?) that can connect to multiple providers. AFAIK you can bring-your-own-key or buy a subscription from them that lets you use your credits across multiple vendors (openai, anthropic, google) across a handful of models from each vendor. So yeah, you can use your openai credentials in junie vs paying for jetbrains junie credits.
Is it 'worth it'? I dunno. I've not used dedicated subscriptions. I adopted Junie when it first came out, and it's been 'good enough'. As I say, I've never hit the 'oh, i have to stop for several hours until they let me in again' wall because of just using the API approach.
As my monthly spend goes up, I might try something else out, but... gpt6-luna just came out. That is likely going to cut my spend already.
jrflo · · focus · HN ↗
lowercased · · focus · HN ↗
I've had more than a few people tell me "oh, it's so much cheaper to use a $20 claude account" or "i've never hit a limit ever using my openai". Inevitably.. I end up reading/hearing "oh, I need to give it another couple hours to start using it again"... I've never hit that with my approach, even if it's costing me a bit more. Being able to work when I want when I have time has some value.
I also have openai and anthropic direct API billing set up for hosted and client projects that need to call out to an LLM service.
the__alchemist · · focus · HN ↗
Is it worth the ~10x extra cost over the subscriptions? (This is obviously a leading question). Also, I think you can use OpenAI's subcription login with Air, but not Claude's.
lowercased · · focus · HN ↗
Junie is their agent(?) that can connect to multiple providers. AFAIK you can bring-your-own-key or buy a subscription from them that lets you use your credits across multiple vendors (openai, anthropic, google) across a handful of models from each vendor. So yeah, you can use your openai credentials in junie vs paying for jetbrains junie credits.
Is it 'worth it'? I dunno. I've not used dedicated subscriptions. I adopted Junie when it first came out, and it's been 'good enough'. As I say, I've never hit the 'oh, i have to stop for several hours until they let me in again' wall because of just using the API approach.
As my monthly spend goes up, I might try something else out, but... gpt6-luna just came out. That is likely going to cut my spend already.