Coding Assistant Price Check: Codex Leads, Kimi at 5x API Cost
MilesCranmer · x · 2026-08-18
The author used agents to research the effective $/token for various coding plans by scanning user reports on Reddit and other platforms.
Key findings (multiplier over API cost):
- Codex: 40x (dropped to 4x on new accounts recently)
- Anthropic: 25x
- Kimi: 5x
- Copilot / Cursor / Windsurf: Approximately equal to API costs.
Codex was previously the best deal, but the margin on new accounts has narrowed significantly, possibly due to usage resets or an upcoming model release.
More from coding & agent
- /improve-threejs：把 vibe coding 的 Three.js 垃圾变流畅 — aidenybai · 2026-08-18
- Dev trick: Visualizing codebases into interactive diagrams with Claude — round · 2026-08-18
- Testing MCP Apps with three contracts: jsdom, Playwright, and manual checks — philrox_ · 2026-08-18
- New research: are LLM agents time-aware? Can they estimate task duration? — maksym_andr · 2026-08-18
- OpenAI's steipete on coding agents expanding into observability and long-running ops — steipete · 2026-08-18
- SQL MCP Server: connecting AI agents directly to SQL data — adnan_hashmi · 2026-08-18