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How I Code with AI on a budget/free

My Browser Setup: The Free AI Buffet

First things first, I have a browser open loaded with tabs pointing to the free tiers of powerful AI models. Why stick to one when you can get multiple perspectives for free? My typical lineup includes:

The Core Workflow: Manual Context is King

AI in web chat's are almost always better at solving problems, and coming up with solutions compared to the agents like Cline, Trae, Copilot.. Not always, but usually.

So I use my tool often, to generate the context bundle. Then I paste it into one of the many AI web chat's (sometimes more than one, since they sometimes give different answers) and just ask it questions or ask it to code review, to try to figure out why x is happening when y is happening...etc

After doing this for a while, you really get a feel for which models excel at which types of tasks. I plan to collect more data on this eventually, but for now, hands-on experience is key.

How AI Code Prep Helps (Example Prompt Structure):

Can you help me debug/figure out why my app is not working when a, b, and c happens? Here are all the relevant code files:

Then, AI Code Prep GUI (for Windows/Mac - check the site for Mac instructions) steps in. It recursively scans your project folder (subfolders, sub-subfolders, you name it) and grabs the code, formatting it nicely like this:

The tool generates output similar to this structure:

fileName.js:
<code>
... the contents of the file..
</code>

nextFile.py:
<code>
import example
...etc
</code>

On Windows, you just right-click somewhere inside your project folder (or on the folder itself) and select "AI Code Prep GUI" from the context menu (look at the screenshots on the site). A GUI window pops up, usually with the right code files pre-selected. It smartly tries to skip things you likely don't need, like node_modules, .git, etc. If its guess isn't perfect, you can easily check or uncheck files.

This is super useful when your project is huge and blows past an AI's context limit. You can manually curate exactly what the AI needs to see.

The problem with many coding agents like Cline, Github Copilot, Cursor, Windsurf, etc., is that they often send either WAY too much context or WAY too little. This is why they can seem dumb or ineffective sometimes. Sometimes, you just gotta do things yourself, use a tool like mine to select the files yourself, but it helps auto-select the code files while skipping the stuff you probably don't need (but still have the option to add what you want with the checkboxes) and then dump that curated context into several AIs (especially the free web ones!).

Sure, there are other context-generating tools, but many are command-line only, or need a public GitHub repo link. What if your code is private? What if you want to keep it local? What if you prefer checkboxes on a GUI? For something like this a GUI makes sense.

Model Strategy: Picking the Right Brain for the Job

Since many great models are free to use via web interfaces (like Gemini in AI Studio, Grok, Deepseek), I prioritize these. Poe.com also gives free daily credits for top models like Claude and the new o4 series.

Gemini 2.5 Pro/Preview (via AI Studio) is great for debugging, great for planning, and also finding it the best at lots of things now. For really thorny issues, I might try the new o4-mini (available via OpenRouter or Poe). It surprisingly fixed a persistent bug for me right away, though I'm still figuring out its best use cases. It's notably cheaper via API than the previous top dogs like Claude 3.5/3.7.

I usually try Claude 3.7 at some point, maybe via Poe or API (OpenRouter makes this easy), but it's pricier for frequent use. Think of Claude 3.7 as Claude on caffeine – brilliant, sometimes verbose, maybe a bit 'psychotic' like Hunter S. Thompson. Lots of great output, but you might need a calmer model like Claude 3.5 to refine it or do the actual coding.

OpenRouter is my go-to for API access. It has tons of free models and all the latest paid ones like GPT 4.1 and o4-mini. Bonus is it doesn't have that problem from the official Claude API from Anthropic where its constantly overloaded (common issue widely talked about, those people can save themselves the pain by using Openrouter's API)

Using Cline (The AI Coding Agent)

I have OpenRouter set up in Cline for when I need API access, but be warned, it can get expensive fast. The GitHub Copilot API, however, is super cheap ($10/month as of writing, though this could change) and Cline can use it!

I find GPT 4.1 (via API, often through Copilot's endpoint in Cline) is currently the best for doing the actual coding within the agent. Some smarter models like o4-mini can be slower or mess up when using agentic tools/commands in Cline.

My Agent Workflow:

  1. Plan & Brainstorm: Use the smarter/free web models (Gemini 2.5, o4-mini, Claude 3.7, Grok, etc.) to figure out the approach, plan the steps, identify libraries, etc.
  2. Generate Agent Prompt: Ask one of these smart models: "Write a detailed-enough prompt for Cline, my AI coding agent, to complete the following tasks: [describe tasks]". Sometimes, I'll copy this generated prompt and paste it into another free AI good at rewriting (like ChatGPT) to refine it further.
  3. Execute with Cline: Paste the step-by-step task list into Cline, configured to use a stable and efficient model like GPT 4.1 (ideally via the cheap Copilot API).
  4. Fallback: If GPT 4.1 struggles, switch Cline to use Claude 3.5 via API. It seems to be the next best for reliable execution.

Essentially: Use expensive/smart models (and the excellent free Gemini 2.5 Pro) to strategize and plan. Validate the plan by pasting it into 2-3 other free models (Deepseek R1, Claude on Poe if context allows) and ask "Is this good? Can you improve it or find flaws?". Then, use a stable workhorse like GPT 4.1 or Claude 3.5 within Cline to do the heavy lifting (coding).

o4-mini seems particularly adept at untangling complex code logic or figuring out high-level implementation strategies (like choosing frameworks or libraries). I'll often throw my initial idea at Gemini 2.5, o4-mini, GPT 4.1, ChatGPT, maybe o3-mini (try duck.ai - often free), and Phind to get a range of ideas. If the free/cheap options don't crack it, I'll escalate to pricier models via API.

Alternative Agents & Setups

Trae.ai (from Bytedance) offers models like GPT 4.1 and Claude 3.7 for free sometimes, but I find its built-in agent isn't as robust as Cline. However, since Trae seems to be a VS Code clone, you can likely install the Cline extension within it!

So, you could have two setups:

Try both! Sometimes the native Copilot agent solves things Cline struggles with, and vice-versa. I suspect Cline sometimes sends overly large prompts which might hinder performance on certain tasks compared to the more integrated Copilot agent.

Cline for VS Code is free, but remember you pay for the API calls unless you're leveraging the Copilot subscription trick. Using the VS Code LM API setting in Cline with a $10/month Copilot sub is currently the most cost-effective way to get near-unlimited access to powerful models within the agent.

Some Thoughts

AI is still going to be hard if you don't already know how to code or know about things like tests, security, the easiest part is at the beginning.. then it's always still time consuming to work out the bugs and make decisions about lots of other stuff. But doing these things (a general 'coding way' of using multiple types of AI, models, software, etc) can help you make the best of these tools.