Token cost is jacked — investors want their money
A June 2026 roundup of free & cheap AI coding resources — Poolside, Mistral Vibe CLI, Nvidia NIM, and budget picks like Minimax, Deepseek v4, and StepFun Flash.
How I code with AI on a budget/cheap
Budget-friendly AI development workflows and coding guides. Free and low-cost tools, real workflows, and evolving playbooks.
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AI Coding Guides
May 2026: Oh My Pi, Opencode Go, and AI Coding Price Increases
A May 2026 budget AI coding update covering Oh My Pi, Opencode Go, DeepSeek v4, MiniMax M2.7, GLM 5.1, and the latest pricing shifts across coding tools.
Alibaba Coding Plan: $3/month for Claude Code with Qwen, Kimi, GLM & More
A quick look at Alibaba's Coding Plan — $3/month for access to Qwen, Kimi, GLM, and MiniMax models via Claude Code using the Dashscope API.
February 2026: Deepseek v3.2 in Claude Code, minor updates about how to stay low cost
February 2026: AI Updates - Claude Code strategies, Deepseek v3.2, cost-saving workflows, and multilingual tools
November 2025: Cost / Lean AI Coding Updates
November 2025 updates: free & cheap coding models (Minimax M2, Ling 1T, Ring 1T, Longcat, Kimi K2), cost hacks and emerging tooling.
How I Code with AI on a Budget/Free – September 2025 Edition
A deep-dive into my 2025 AI coding stack using GLM 4.5, Gemini 2.5 Pro, Cline and AI Code Prep.
My AI Code Prep & Cline Workflow for Budget Coding/Debugging
A personal guide on using AI Code Prep GUI, Cline, and various free AI web interfaces like Gemini, Grok, Deepseek, and Poe for cost-effective coding and debugging.
Deep Dives & Playbooks
How Agent Harnesses Edit Files
Deep Dive
A field guide to how agent harnesses — Cline, Codex, OpenCode, ADK-Rust, Reasonix, CodeWhale,...
Agent Harness Field Guide
Deep Dive
A deep dive into how Pochi, Neovate Code, Mux, Crush, Kimi Code CLI, Qwen Code, OpenHands,...
Purpose Driven Development
Idea
Notes on using short purpose sentences to keep coding agents on track.
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These guides document my real-world experiments using AI coding tools like Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and VS Code agents on a tight budget. Everything here is free to read, and I update it as the tools and pricing change.