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Topic starter
24/08/2026 7:24 pm
hey guys, trying to decide between keeping my $20 ChatGPT Plus / Claude Pro subs or just using OpenRouter / Anthropic API keys directly with desktop apps like Cherry Studio or TypingMind. for those who switched to API pay-per-token, are you actually saving money month to month?
24/08/2026 7:34 pm
100% depends on your context window usage. if you dump massive 50k line repos into Claude 3.5 Sonnet over API, those input tokens add up fast and can easily hit $40-50/mo. but for everyday chat and quick coding snippets, API usually costs me like $4 to $7 a month.
Topic starter
24/08/2026 7:44 pm
that makes total sense. I do paste pretty big files sometimes so maybe I'll keep Claude Pro for heavy coding and use API for quick queries.