[chillfox]

From my observation, people who use the api either end up learning to be much more token efficient, or use a cheaper model.

I have been using the API for the last 2 years, OpenRouter for personal projects and Claude API for work, most of it in zed, always on high thinking. For work I usually spend $25 if I use opus/sonnet all day, and for personal stuff I usually spend $2-$5 if I use sonnet for a full evening.

But, I don’t think someone who’s used to not thinking about token cost and efficient use would get anywhere close to that low spending if they switched from a plan to the API.