#cost
8 items tagged #cost.
GUIDE 2026-05-11
Token economics for AI coding: per-model cost curves and where they break your budget
A breakdown of 2026 token prices across Claude, GPT-5, and open source models — and where autonomous coding sessions actually spend the money.
GUIDE 2026-05-11
Aider chat history compression: keeping long sessions affordable
Every Aider turn re-sends the full chat history. After 30+ turns that history can cost more than the code change itself. Here is how to control it.
GUIDE 2026-05-11
Aider's --weak-model: the second model that pays for itself
Aider uses a cheap secondary model for commit messages, summaries, and name suggestions. Here's what that flag does, when it helps, and when to turn it off.
GUIDE 2026-05-11
Choosing between Opus, Sonnet, and Haiku in Claude Code without overspending
Opus costs roughly 5x Sonnet and 20x Haiku. Routing tasks to the right model is the single highest-leverage cost decision in a Claude Code workflow.
GUIDE 2026-05-11
Prompt caching on Claude Code: the 5-minute TTL and how to actually save money
Claude Code's prompt caching has a 5-minute TTL. Understanding that clock shapes how you structure sessions and which habits quietly drain your budget.
