> The $200 per month subscription comes with a ton of usage.
$200 dollars + VAT is half of my rent.
I know HN is not a good place to rant on this subject, but I'm often flabbergasted about the number of people here that lives in a bubble with regard to the price of tech. Or just prices in general.
I remember someone who said a few years ago (I'm paraphrasing): "You could just use one of the empty room in your house!". It was so outlandish I believed it was a joke at first.
I think I am in the middle. I can afford $200/m but it'd be a brainer. And I don't pay that as I barely use home AI enough to warrant it.
I am also amazed at the richer end of HN but now I realize I am priviledged. Earned it? Like fuck I did. Lucky to be born a geek in late 20c. I'd be useless as a middle ages guy.
The other part of the bubble is assuming working in projects that allow disclosing any code or project details to a generic third party with that kind of power asymmetry.
It’s a good reminder. Claude Max costs about as much as the global poverty line ($3/day.) I think it’s okay to invest in it, but we should try to make sure it’s worthwhile, and also invest in charity.
$200/mo is a lot, sure, but the shocking part of that comparison is your rent. I didn’t know $400/mo apartments still existed. For most people in the US and EU, $200 would be closer to 15%-20% of rent I think? My cell phone bill for my family is almost $200/mo.
Last year, at first, $200 seemed crazy. Now that I’m getting addicted to coding agents, not so much. Some companies are paying API rates for AI for employees, and it’s a lot more than $200/mo. It seems like funny money, and I’m not sure it’ll last.
In the US/Western Europe? Because for devs especially in the former, $200 is pocket change, especially for a core productivity tool. And the rent would be in the $1200 to $3000 easily. Same for houses. Maybe not in NY or SF, but in most of the US there's no shortage of house spaces and redundant rooms.
>I'm often flabbergasted about the number of people here that lives in a bubble with regard to the price of tech
Sorry, no. You live in the bubble, the people you think are living in a bubble are actually doing the very opposite and taking advantage of the lack of bubbles in our globally connected world.
Today, basically anyone can sell any bullshit to billions of people around the world. We’ve never lived in less of a bubble.
I dunno how you guys even go throuh the $200 subscription. I use it every day for work and side projects doing tasks in parallel and Im no where newr the limit on $100.
The $100 already gives plenty of usage and is more than worth it, and I'm definitely not an affluent SV developer. I've only ever hit the 5h limit once in the last month, although I rarely run more than 3 agents at once, and I don't use ridiculously expensive tools like Gas Town.
Are you kidding me? Even developer salaries in the Philippines can afford that or at least the plan below it. If I used the Anthropic API, my monthly spend would be $4k a month. The Claude Max plan is the best bargain around.
> 200 USD/month is a number only really affluent programmers (e.g. in the Silicon Valley) can perhaps pay easily.
Not true, I live in USA PNW and my last remote job paid $12k/mo. I have been jobless for over a month now (currently waiting for the next HN "who wants to be hired"), but I still have enough savings to easily afford to continue that plan for a while.
I don't think it really has to do with affluence but more the job market and economy you're in. Countries with lower salaries or higher costs of living will have less buying power.
I'm starting to think in these conversations we're all often talking about two different things. You're talking about running an LLM service through its provided tooling (codex, Claude, cursor), others seem to be talking token costs because they're integrating LLMs into software or are using harness systems like opencode, pi, or openclaw and balancing tasks across models.
Fair enough, I read it quickly and assumed the person they replied to was talking about Claude Code
But I run a AI SaaS and we do offer Opus 4.6, too. Our use case is not nearly as token intensive as something like coding so we are still able to offer it with a good profit margin.
Also you can run OpenClaw with your CC subscription. It's what I do.
I wrap Opus 4.5 in a consumer product with 0 economic utility and people pay for it, I'm sure plenty of end users are willing to pay for it in their software.
Edit: I'm not using the term of art, I mean it literally cannot make them money.
Why is that? The $200 per month subscription comes with a ton of usage.
Opus 4.6 is available on the $20 plan too
> The $200 per month subscription comes with a ton of usage.
$200 dollars + VAT is half of my rent.
I know HN is not a good place to rant on this subject, but I'm often flabbergasted about the number of people here that lives in a bubble with regard to the price of tech. Or just prices in general.
I remember someone who said a few years ago (I'm paraphrasing): "You could just use one of the empty room in your house!". It was so outlandish I believed it was a joke at first.
EDIT: "not", minor grammar
Thanks for the alternative perspective.
I think I am in the middle. I can afford $200/m but it'd be a brainer. And I don't pay that as I barely use home AI enough to warrant it.
I am also amazed at the richer end of HN but now I realize I am priviledged. Earned it? Like fuck I did. Lucky to be born a geek in late 20c. I'd be useless as a middle ages guy.
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The other part of the bubble is assuming working in projects that allow disclosing any code or project details to a generic third party with that kind of power asymmetry.
That's why ai is for the "rich". Poor people or later on middle class will be left behind....
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It’s a good reminder. Claude Max costs about as much as the global poverty line ($3/day.) I think it’s okay to invest in it, but we should try to make sure it’s worthwhile, and also invest in charity.
$200/mo is a lot, sure, but the shocking part of that comparison is your rent. I didn’t know $400/mo apartments still existed. For most people in the US and EU, $200 would be closer to 15%-20% of rent I think? My cell phone bill for my family is almost $200/mo.
Last year, at first, $200 seemed crazy. Now that I’m getting addicted to coding agents, not so much. Some companies are paying API rates for AI for employees, and it’s a lot more than $200/mo. It seems like funny money, and I’m not sure it’ll last.
2 replies →
In the US/Western Europe? Because for devs especially in the former, $200 is pocket change, especially for a core productivity tool. And the rent would be in the $1200 to $3000 easily. Same for houses. Maybe not in NY or SF, but in most of the US there's no shortage of house spaces and redundant rooms.
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You think I don't understand that? I'm friends with people who make little more than that amount per month.
But it's not all that relevant to this conversation. It's not like this is the first time economic inequality is a thing.
It's just as relevant to me factoring in your salary the next time I go buy a car.
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For me I pass the token costs off to my clients. Not everyone is a hobbyist burning their own cash on personal projects
Work pays.
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>I'm often flabbergasted about the number of people here that lives in a bubble with regard to the price of tech
Sorry, no. You live in the bubble, the people you think are living in a bubble are actually doing the very opposite and taking advantage of the lack of bubbles in our globally connected world.
Today, basically anyone can sell any bullshit to billions of people around the world. We’ve never lived in less of a bubble.
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I dunno how you guys even go throuh the $200 subscription. I use it every day for work and side projects doing tasks in parallel and Im no where newr the limit on $100.
A subscription for coding - no thanks.
If you think it's only for coding you don't have much of an imagination :)
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> The $200 per month subscription comes with a ton of usage.
200 USD/month is a number only really affluent programmers (e.g. in the Silicon Valley) can perhaps pay easily.
The $100 already gives plenty of usage and is more than worth it, and I'm definitely not an affluent SV developer. I've only ever hit the 5h limit once in the last month, although I rarely run more than 3 agents at once, and I don't use ridiculously expensive tools like Gas Town.
"Opus 4.6 is available on the $20 plan too"
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Are you kidding me? Even developer salaries in the Philippines can afford that or at least the plan below it. If I used the Anthropic API, my monthly spend would be $4k a month. The Claude Max plan is the best bargain around.
> 200 USD/month is a number only really affluent programmers (e.g. in the Silicon Valley) can perhaps pay easily.
Not true, I live in USA PNW and my last remote job paid $12k/mo. I have been jobless for over a month now (currently waiting for the next HN "who wants to be hired"), but I still have enough savings to easily afford to continue that plan for a while.
I don't think it really has to do with affluence but more the job market and economy you're in. Countries with lower salaries or higher costs of living will have less buying power.
I'm starting to think in these conversations we're all often talking about two different things. You're talking about running an LLM service through its provided tooling (codex, Claude, cursor), others seem to be talking token costs because they're integrating LLMs into software or are using harness systems like opencode, pi, or openclaw and balancing tasks across models.
Fair enough, I read it quickly and assumed the person they replied to was talking about Claude Code
But I run a AI SaaS and we do offer Opus 4.6, too. Our use case is not nearly as token intensive as something like coding so we are still able to offer it with a good profit margin.
Also you can run OpenClaw with your CC subscription. It's what I do.
I wrap Opus 4.5 in a consumer product with 0 economic utility and people pay for it, I'm sure plenty of end users are willing to pay for it in their software.
Edit: I'm not using the term of art, I mean it literally cannot make them money.
1 reply →