Another problem is that it works like a slot machine -- sometimes the code is good, most of the time the code is mediocre and full of bugs.

Last Friday I spent about $15 in 1 hour using claude code with API key, and the code doesn't really work, even though all the unit tests passed. I am not going to touch it for weeks, while the loss is fresh in my mind.

With a subscription though, you can keep on gambling, until you get a hit.