Offloading Claude Code subagents to DeepSeek: $2000/day down to $9
cramforce · x · 2026-10-28
A practical workflow for running Claude Code subagents on cheap models:
- Use deepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash-1017 for subagents by asking the model to write .claude/agents/ config files (the subagent tool doesn't take a tool arg)
- Opus 5.5 handles orchestration; each subagent gets its own Vercel Sandbox so the laptop stays free
- Currently 24 subagents running in parallel, DeepSeek doing 99% of the work for $9 total
- Previous cost averaged $2K/day in list-price tokens
Takeaway: even with a Max subscription, delegating to cheap subagent models massively amplifies output.
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