[gr]

Yes, unfortunately the free version of Claude, Gemini or ChatGPT coding models can't compare with the paid ones, and are just not that useful. But, there are alternatives like GLM and Grok that can be quite useful, depending on the task.

[gr]

PS: The cheapest still very useful alternative I've found is GitHub's Copilot at €10/m base price, with multiple models included. If you pick manually between cheap models for low complexity and save Opus 4.6 for specific things, you can keep it under budget.