Coding plan vs pay-per-token
What would your monthly usage cost at API list prices, and at what volume does each plan pay off? API prices are first-party list prices from prices.branolabs.com (updated 2026-10-22, CC BY 4.0). EUR plans converted at the ECB reference rate of 2026-10-22 (1 EUR = 1.1205 USD).
A plan only saves money if its limits let you use that much. Most vendors don't publish limits in tokens, so for them we can't say whether your usage fits. Where a vendor publishes credits or token estimates (Z.ai, Melious, GitHub Copilot), the last column checks it.
M = millions. The starting numbers are only an example; enter your own (agent tools such as Claude Code's /usage or your API dashboard show your real token counts). Agentic coding is usually input-heavy with high cache hit rates.
| Plan | Plan price | Priced at (API list) | Your usage via API | API cheaper below | Does your usage fit? (published numbers only) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT Go | $8 | OpenAI gpt-6-luna | $2.9 API cheaper | 281.4M tok | Vendor publishes no token/credit numbers: unknown whether this usage fits. |
| Cursor Plus | $8 | xAI grok-4.7 | $77 plan 9.6x cheaper* | 10.6M tok | Vendor publishes no token/credit numbers: unknown whether this usage fits. |
| Copilot Pro | $10 | Anthropic Claude Sonnet 5.5 | $49 plan 4.9x cheaper* | 20.8M tok | Includes $15 of credits per month; your usage at API list price is $49. Per-model credit rates may differ from API list prices. |
| Z.ai GLM Lite | $18 | Z.ai GLM-5.3 | $46 plan 2.6x cheaper* | 39.7M tok | GLM-5.3 rates: needs ~6,209 credits/week at peak rate = 62% of the 10,000 weekly credits (off-peak: 31%). 5-hour cap: 2,000 credits. |
| Kimi Code Plus | $19 | Moonshot AI kimi-k3 | $87 plan 4.6x cheaper* | 22.3M tok | Vendor publishes no token/credit numbers: unknown whether this usage fits. |
| Google AI Pro | $20 | Google gemini-4-argon | $98 plan 4.9x cheaper* | 20.8M tok | Vendor publishes no token/credit numbers: unknown whether this usage fits. |
| Claude Pro | $20 | Anthropic Claude Sonnet 5.5 | $49 plan 2.5x cheaper* | 41.6M tok | Vendor publishes no token/credit numbers: unknown whether this usage fits. |
| ChatGPT Plus | $20 | OpenAI gpt-6.1-sol | $49 plan 2.5x cheaper* | 41.6M tok | Vendor publishes no token/credit numbers: unknown whether this usage fits. |
| Windsurf Pro | $20 | Anthropic Claude Sonnet 5.5 | $49 plan 2.5x cheaper* | 41.6M tok | Vendor publishes no token/credit numbers: unknown whether this usage fits. |
| MiniMax Go | $22 | no first-party API price in our data | n/a | n/a | Vendor publishes no token/credit numbers: unknown whether this usage fits. |
| Cursor Premium | $30 | xAI grok-4.7 | $77 plan 2.6x cheaper* | 39.7M tok | Vendor publishes no token/credit numbers: unknown whether this usage fits. |
| Copilot Pro+ | $39 | Anthropic Claude Sonnet 5.5 | $49 plan 1.3x cheaper* | 81.2M tok | Includes $70 of credits per month; your usage at API list price is $49. Per-model credit rates may differ from API list prices. |
| Kimi Code Pro | $39 | Moonshot AI kimi-k3 | $87 plan 2.2x cheaper* | 45.7M tok | Vendor publishes no token/credit numbers: unknown whether this usage fits. |
| Alibaba Coding Plan Pro | $50 | no first-party API price in our data | n/a | n/a | Counts requests, not tokens (90,000/month cap), so it can't be converted. |
| Featherless Developer | $50 | no first-party API price in our data | n/a | n/a | Includes $50 of credits per month. Per-model credit rates may differ from API list prices. |
| Melious Basic | $55 49 € (ECB 1.1205) | Z.ai GLM-5.3 | $46 API cheaper | 121.2M tok | Vendor estimate for GLM 5.3: up to 700M tokens/month; your total is 102M (15%). |
| MiniMax Explore | $55 | no first-party API price in our data | n/a | n/a | Vendor publishes no token/credit numbers: unknown whether this usage fits. |
| Z.ai GLM Pro | $80 | Z.ai GLM-5.3 | $46 API cheaper | 176.6M tok | GLM-5.3 rates: needs ~6,209 credits/week at peak rate = 10% of the 60,000 weekly credits (off-peak: 5%). 5-hour cap: 12,000 credits. |
| Kimi Code Max | $99 | Moonshot AI kimi-k3 | $87 API cheaper | 116.1M tok | Vendor publishes no token/credit numbers: unknown whether this usage fits. |
| Google AI Ultra 5x | $100 | Google gemini-4-argon | $98 API cheaper | 104.1M tok | Vendor publishes no token/credit numbers: unknown whether this usage fits. |
| Claude Max 5x | $100 | Anthropic Claude Opus 5.5 | $98 API cheaper | 104.1M tok | Vendor publishes no token/credit numbers: unknown whether this usage fits. |
| ChatGPT Pro $100 | $100 | OpenAI gpt-6.1-sol | $49 API cheaper | 208.2M tok | Vendor publishes no token/credit numbers: unknown whether this usage fits. |
| Copilot Max | $100 | Anthropic Claude Opus 5.5 | $98 API cheaper | 104.1M tok | Includes $200 of credits per month; your usage at API list price is $98. Per-model credit rates may differ from API list prices. |
| Cursor Super | $100 | xAI grok-4.7 | $77 API cheaper | 132.5M tok | Vendor publishes no token/credit numbers: unknown whether this usage fits. |
| MiniMax Build | $132 | no first-party API price in our data | n/a | n/a | Vendor publishes no token/credit numbers: unknown whether this usage fits. |
| Melious Pro | $167 149 € (ECB 1.1205) | Z.ai GLM-5.3 | $46 API cheaper | 368.6M tok | Vendor estimate for GLM 5.3: up to 2.5B tokens/month; your total is 102M (4%). |
| Z.ai GLM Max | $168 | Z.ai GLM-5.3 | $46 API cheaper | 370.9M tok | GLM-5.3 rates: needs ~6,209 credits/week at peak rate = 4% of the 140,000 weekly credits (off-peak: 2%). 5-hour cap: 28,000 credits. |
| Kimi Code Ultra | $199 | Moonshot AI kimi-k3 | $87 API cheaper | 233.3M tok | Vendor publishes no token/credit numbers: unknown whether this usage fits. |
| Google AI Ultra 20x | $200 | Google gemini-4-argon | $98 API cheaper | 208.2M tok | Vendor publishes no token/credit numbers: unknown whether this usage fits. |
| Claude Max 20x | $200 | Anthropic Claude Opus 5.5 | $98 API cheaper | 208.2M tok | Vendor publishes no token/credit numbers: unknown whether this usage fits. |
| ChatGPT Pro $200 | $200 | OpenAI gpt-6.1-sol | $49 API cheaper | 416.3M tok | Vendor publishes no token/credit numbers: unknown whether this usage fits. |
| Cursor Ultra | $200 | xAI grok-4.7 | $77 API cheaper | 264.9M tok | Vendor publishes no token/credit numbers: unknown whether this usage fits. |
| Windsurf Max | $200 | Anthropic Claude Opus 5.5 | $98 API cheaper | 208.2M tok | Vendor publishes no token/credit numbers: unknown whether this usage fits. |
| ChatGPT Pro $500 | $500 | OpenAI gpt-6-astra | $290 API cheaper | 175.9M tok | Vendor publishes no token/credit numbers: unknown whether this usage fits. |
| Melious Unlimited 3x | $559 499 € (ECB 1.1205) | Z.ai GLM-5.3 | $46 API cheaper | 1.23B tok | Vendor publishes no token/credit numbers: unknown whether this usage fits. |
| Melious Unlimited 6x | $1,568 1399 € (ECB 1.1205) | Z.ai GLM-5.3 | $46 API cheaper | 3.46B tok | Vendor publishes no token/credit numbers: unknown whether this usage fits. |
* Only if the plan's limits actually allow this much usage, which most vendors don't publish. OpenAI states that API token prices are separate from subscription usage and should not be used to estimate included tasks. "API cheaper below" = total monthly tokens (same input/cache/output mix) at which the API list price equals the plan price.