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points by 2001zhaozhao 2 days ago | 0 comments

Are these comparisons based on API price? If so, then the OpenAI/Anthropic subscriptions (which are a 15-40X discount on model pricing) turn the comparison into a bloodbath, even more in favor of the closed source models.

[–] rbehrends 2 days ago

In theory, yes. In practice, this comes with a few caveats.

First, OpenCode and Command Code offer you basically 6x-10x usage for some models (not all, though, look at the exact rates per model). That's a very similar model.

Second, while Anthropic subscriptions on paper offer the most generous usage per dollar spent [1], this comes with a few caveats. First, they are the most expensive of all models in cost/task. Second, if you use Claude Code non-interactively (claude -p "..." or SDK/ACP mode), they apparently charge you 70% more usage; you have to use their apps directly and interactively to get the full benefit of a subscription. Also, Anthropic has the lowest cache TTL at 5 minutes, which can really hurt for interactive use. Contrast that with OpenAI's default of 30 minutes (and according to a recent post by Tibo, apparently 12 hours for subscriptions, though I haven't verified it myself) or the fact that DeepSeek caches prompts for three days (which is a major reason for their extremely high cache hit rate and how cheap they are in practice), and it doesn't look like THAT great of a deal in comparison anymore. It is of course still good value for money, just not as great as it may look at first glance.

[1] At least before the recent usage bump to OpenAI's Pro plans, though that doesn't seem to include the Plus plan if that is what you are on.

[–] hatefulmoron 2 days ago

There are open model subscriptions with discounts as well (opencode go, commandcode, ollama cloud, synthetic, ..)

edit: and of course from first party labs as well, like xiaomi, z.ai, kimi etc

[–] reissbaker 2 days ago

Hey, thanks for the shout-out! (I'm one of the cofounders of Synthetic.new.) I think I recognize you from Discord :)

Yep, on subscription plans DS4.1-Flash-1017 feels more or less infinite. I still reach for Astra at the high end of tasks but DS is great for cheap "repeatedly crawl the entire codebase and find query optimization" type tasks. I also use a lot of K3.1 Pro lately although admittedly it's a lot more expensive.

Also personally I find that the closed tiny models (Haiku, Luna) feel a lot less capable in practice than their benchmark scores indicate relative to DS.

That being said the closed labs own the high ground of intelligence, nothing really compares to Astra in my opinion in terms of sheer "it will achieve any task you give it," Kool-Aid-Man running through walls style capability. It's quite expensive but it's also very very capable.

[–] hatefulmoron 2 days ago

I've been subscribed to Synthetic for months and it's a great service [I didn't put you first in my list because I don't want to shill :^)]

[–] tobblegobble 2 days ago

I just checked out your Go plan and noticed the GLM 5.3 Flash credits are pretty low compared to the other flash models. Is there any plans to change that?