This is what I don't get. It's so much simpler to use the LLMs with other tools (aider for me) that I don't understand why people are avoiding the API creating monthly accounts to begin with. Is it cheaper? Is Claude Code really that awesome or something? By not even looking at it I guess I never have to know, but from where I sit it seems like people are just putting themselves through a lot of b.s. in order to marry a start-up.

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furyofantares 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

> Is it cheaper?

"ccusage" is telling me I would have spent $2010.90 in the last month if I was paying via the API, rather than $200.

But also I do feel Claude Code is quite a bit better than other things I've used, when using the same model. I'm not sure why though, it's a fairly simple program with only a few prompts and only a few tools, it seems like others could catch up immediately by learning some lessons from it.

	▲	troyvit 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		Daaaaamn that makes a lot of sense then. For my limited use it doesn't add up but clearly the more deeply embedded the tool is the more it makes sense.

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data-ottawa 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

According to Claude cost I get about 5x value in token cost by having a max subscription.

I upgraded after I hit the equivalent spend in API fees in a month.