Blogger Burns Through Subscriptions to Rank Real Usage Leverage; Opus 5.5 Tops Value

Blogger PawelHuryn paid out of pocket to "burn through" various AI subscription plans, measuring the real-world API usage multiples they offer, and then used those figures to convert Artificial Analysis leaderboard scores into actual subscription-based costs — arriving at a value ranking that differs markedly from other methodologies.

Confirmed

He recalculated leaderboard costs using his own measured usage leverage, publishing multiples such as SuperGrok 80x and Muse Power 137x; Claude Max 20x ($200) corresponds to 45.3x usage (per m3's account).
After weighing multiple effort levels and scores, he concludes that on a subscription-price basis, Claude Opus 5.5 is currently the best value-for-money model.
On the same basis, GPT-6 Astra lags far behind Opus 5.5 in cost efficiency.
For a cheap everyday agent, he recommends Muse Spark 1.3 with the Contributor plan (requires agreeing to certain conditions; full terms not given in the post).

Why it matters

API pricing and real subscription usage differ enormously, so leaderboard scores alone can over- or underestimate actual costs; this hands-on test gives users a much more realistic reference when choosing subscription tiers.
The findings show subscription "usage leverage" varies wildly across providers (from tens-fold to over a hundred-fold), significantly affecting plan choices for heavy users.

2026-10-07 ~ 2026-10-07 · 5 related posts

Primary sources

Blogger's subscription-cost math shows Opus 5.5 crushes GPT-6 Astra on value per dollar — PawelHuryn · 2026-10-07 18:07 (UTC+08:00)
Subscription multipliers recalculated: SuperGrok gives 80x, Muse Power+Contributor 137x usage — PawelHuryn · 2026-10-07 18:31 (UTC+08:00)

[source] Blogger's subscription-cost math shows Opus 5.5 crushes GPT-6 Astra on value per dollar — PawelHuryn · 2026-10-07
Blogger burns subscriptions to measure real API usage multipliers of AI plans — PawelHuryn · 2026-10-07
Opus 5.5 is now the best value by subscription cost, says analyst — PawelHuryn · 2026-10-07
[source] Subscription multipliers recalculated: SuperGrok gives 80x, Muse Power+Contributor 137x usage — PawelHuryn · 2026-10-07
Recalculating benchmark costs at subscription prices: Opus 5.5 best value for money — PawelHuryn · 2026-10-07