AI

My opinions and experience concerning LLMs

Top Pick of 2025

Claude

by Anthropic

Visit My Usage

Claude has become my go-to AI assistant for coding, writing, and learning very quickly. I believe their Max 5x ($100/mo) is the best value for budget-conscious consumers like myself.

Top-Tier Tool CallingHigh-Value PlansGood Speed

My AI Stack

The AI tools I use as a part of my routine and workflow.

Tools

OpenCode

Free

My favorite FOSS AI coding assistant

Active Use
Visit →
Windsurf

Windsurf

Free

Amazing free tab completion and solid IDE

Active Use
Visit →

Amp Free

Free

Free agent with decent output

Occasional Use
Visit →
V0

v0 Free

Free

Generating boilerplate UIs

Occasional Use
Visit →

Providers

Claude

Claude Max 5x

$100/moFree

My favorite model provider for general use and coding

Primary
Visit →Usage →
Z.ai

GLM Coding Lite

$90/quarter$45/quarter

Cheap, Claude-like model with a slow API

Active Use
Visit →
Qwen

Qwen Chat/Qwen CLI

Free

My favorite open source LLM for chatting

Active Use
Visit →
Gemini

Gemini Pro/Gemini CLI

$20/moFree

Chatting, asking questions, and image generation

Occasional Use
Visit →
Perplexity

Perplexity Pro

$20/moFree

Reliable for more in-depth searching

Occasional Use
Visit →

Favorite Models

Based on personal preference

Claude Opus 4.5

by Anthropic

9.5

Fantastic planning model for use with Claude Code's Opus Plan Mode.

Claude Sonnet 4.5

by Anthropic

9.5

Better judgement with a different personality.

Claude Sonnet 4

by Anthropic

9.0

The perfect balance of capability, speed, and price. Perfect for development with React.

Claude Opus 4.1

by Anthropic

9.0

Amazing planner, useful for Plan Mode in Claude Code. Useful in code generation, albeit at a higher cost.

GLM 4.6

by Z.AI

9.0

Cheap model with suprisingly good output quality.

Page 1 of 3

Favorite Tools

Based on personal preference

Claude Code

10.0

Pros:

  • • Flagship models
  • • High usage limits
  • • Exceptional Claude integration

Cons:

  • • API interface be slow at times
  • • High investment cost to get full value

Best overall for Claude lovers

OpenCode

9.5

Pros:

  • • Fantastic TUI design
  • • Frequent updates and bug fixes
  • • Easy to setup

Cons:

  • • Occasional parsing issues

My favorite open source agent

Codex

9.0

Pros:

  • • Good TUI
  • • Perfectly tuned for GPT models
  • • Simple in the right ways

Cons:

  • • Slow output

Exciting new player in the agent space

Page 1 of 3

Unused Tools

Retired or cancelled tools discontinued from my AI stack.

Tools

GithubCopilot

GitHub Copilot Pro

$10/moFree

Random edits when I don't want to start a Claude session

Unused
Visit →

Providers

OpenAI

ChatGPT Business

$60/mo

Feature-rich and budget-friendly (for now)

Unused
Visit →Usage →