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Subscription vs API Pricing ​

AI coding tools offer two authentication methods: subscription plans and API keys. For sustained coding sessions (vibe-coding), subscriptions are dramatically cheaper — often 10–30x less than API billing for the same work.[1]

The Cost Difference ​

A typical active coding session uses hundreds of thousands of tokens per hour. Here’s how the costs compare:

Claude Code ​

MethodCostWhat You Get
Claude Max (subscription)$100–200/moUnlimited use during coding sessions
API key (ANTHROPIC_API_KEY)$600–2,000+/moPay per token; heavy use adds up fast

Auth command:

bash
claude          # Auto-login with Claude Max subscription (recommended)

Codex CLI (OpenAI) ​

MethodCostWhat You Get
ChatGPT Plus (subscription)$20/moModerate use
ChatGPT Pro (subscription)$200/moHeavy use
API key (OPENAI_API_KEY)$200–1,000+/moPay per token

Auth command:

bash
codex login     # Log in with ChatGPT subscription (recommended)

Gemini CLI (Google) ​

MethodCostWhat You Get
Free tier$0Generous free quota
Google One AI Premium~$20/moHigher limits
API key (GEMINI_API_KEY)VariablePay per token

Auth command:

bash
gemini          # Log in with Google account (recommended)

Rule of Thumb ​

Subscription = 10–30x cheaper for sustained coding sessions.

The math is simple: a subscription gives you a flat monthly rate, while API billing charges per token. AI coding tools are extremely token-hungry — they read entire files, generate long code blocks, and iterate through multiple rounds of edits. A single complex feature can consume millions of tokens.[2]

When API Keys Still Make Sense ​

API keys are the right choice for:

Use CaseWhy
CI/CD pipelinesAutomated jobs that run briefly and infrequently
Light or occasional useA few queries per week
Programmatic accessScripts and integrations that call the API directly
Team/org billingCentralized billing through API usage dashboards

For interactive coding sessions — where you're going back and forth with the AI for hours — subscriptions win on cost every time.[3]

Setup in VMark ​

VMark’s AGENTS.md enforces subscription-first auth as a project convention. When you clone the repo and open an AI coding tool, it reminds you to use subscription auth:

Prefer subscription auth over API keys for all AI coding tools.

All three tools work out of the box once authenticated:

bash
# Recommended: subscription auth
claude              # Claude Code with Claude Max
codex login         # Codex CLI with ChatGPT Plus/Pro
gemini              # Gemini CLI with Google account

# Fallback: API keys
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-...
export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...
export GEMINI_API_KEY=AI...

PATH for macOS GUI Apps

macOS GUI apps (like terminals launched from Spotlight) have a minimal PATH. If a tool works in your terminal but Claude Code can't find it, ensure the binary location is in your shell profile (~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc).

  1. A typical intensive AI coding session consumes 50,000–100,000+ tokens per interaction. At current API rates (e.g., Claude Sonnet at $3/$15 per million input/output tokens), heavy users report monthly API costs of $200–$2,000+ — while subscription plans cap at $100–$200/month for unlimited use. The disparity grows with usage intensity: light users may see similar costs either way, but sustained vibe-coding sessions make subscriptions the clear winner. See: AI Development Tools Pricing Analysis (2025); Claude Code Token Limits Guide, Faros AI (2025). ↩︎

  2. AI coding agents consume far more tokens than simple chat interactions because they read entire files into context, generate multi-file edits, run iterative fix-test loops, and maintain conversation history across long sessions. A single complex feature implementation can involve dozens of tool calls, each consuming thousands of tokens. The context window itself becomes a cost driver — larger windows enable better results but multiply token usage. See: The Real Cost of Vibe Coding (2025). ↩︎

  3. The broader SaaS industry has been moving toward hybrid pricing models that combine flat subscriptions with usage-based components. By 2023, 46% of SaaS businesses had adopted usage-based pricing, and companies using it report 137% net dollar retention. However, for AI-powered tools where every query consumes noticeable compute, pure usage-based pricing exposes users to unpredictable costs — which is why flat-rate subscriptions remain attractive for heavy individual users. See: The State of SaaS Pricing Strategy (2025); The Evolution of Pricing Models for SaaS Companies, BCG (2024). ↩︎

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