# Vibe Code Tours — student setup (Linux/macOS/WSL): nvm+Node22, uv+Python3.12, git, Claude Code + verify > Source: > Published: 2026-05-26 12:21:29+00:00 Quick reference for picking a provider/CLI on day 1. **All numbers verified early-mid 2026 — confirm live before you depend on them.** Pricing and quotas change frequently (especially Chinese providers and free-tier limits). | Goal | Pick | Why | |---|---|---| Zero cost, zero card | Gemini CLI with personal Google account | Generous free tier, no card required, 60 req/min | | Zero cost + multi-provider | opencode + Gemini API key (AI Studio free tier) | Model-agnostic CLI; swap providers later without changing tool | | Best quality, paid | Claude Code with Anthropic API or Bedrock | Top coding quality; budget $5–10/student/month is realistic | | Cheapest paid bulk | DeepSeek V4 Flash via opencode | $0.14/$0.28 per M tokens — 20× cheaper than Claude | If your region blocks `claude.ai` , **skip Claude Code on day 1** — use Gemini CLI or opencode instead. We'll add the regional fallback later. **Provider:** Google Gemini Code Assist (consumer tier).**Auth:** browser sign-in with a personal Google account on first run.**Quota:** up to**60 requests/minute**,**~1,000 requests/day** on Flash; cap drops to ~100/day on Pro-class models.**Cost:****$0**. No card. May log prompts for training (read the consent screen).** Install:**`npm i -g @google/gemini-cli` →`gemini` . **Provider:**`ai.google.dev` — separate from Gemini CLI; gives you an API key you can wire into opencode/LiteLLM/anything.**Free quotas**(per-day, per-model, no card):** Gemini 2.5 Pro**— ~100 requests/day · 5 req/min** Gemini 2.5 Flash**— ~250 requests/day · 10 req/min** Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite**— ~1,500 requests/day · 15 req/min **Cost:****$0** within the quota; over-quota = 429 until reset.**Get a key:**[https://aistudio.google.com/app/apikey](https://aistudio.google.com/app/apikey) **Free BYOK:****1,000,000 requests/month** routed through OpenRouter to your own provider keys, then 5% surcharge.real free hosted variants (Qwen3-Coder, DeepSeek, GLM, Kimi) rate-limited to`:free` models:**1,000 req/day after a one-time $10 top-up**;** 50/day without**.** Catch:**free traffic may be logged/used for upstream training.** Get a key:**[https://openrouter.ai/](https://openrouter.ai/) Numbers below are list pricing per 1,000,000 tokens, input then output. **Cached input read** = the price for repeated context (huge cost saver for coding agents that resend the same files). | Provider / Model | Input | Cached read | Output | |---|---|---|---| Anthropic Claude Sonnet 4.5 | $3.00 | $0.30 | $15.00 | Anthropic Claude Haiku 4.5 | $1.00 | $0.10 | $5.00 | OpenAI gpt-5-codex | $1.25 | $0.125 | $10.00 | Google Gemini 2.5 Pro | $1.25 (≤200k ctx) | $0.31 | $10.00 | Google Gemini 2.5 Flash | $0.30 | $0.075 | $2.50 | Google Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | $0.10 | low | $0.40 | Z.ai GLM-4.6 | $0.39 | low | $1.74 | MiniMax M2 | $0.255 | none | $1.00 | Alibaba Qwen3-Coder | $0.22 | none | $0.90 | DeepSeek V4 Flash | $0.14 | $0.0028 | $0.28 | DeepSeek V4 Pro (list) | $1.74 | $0.0145 | $3.48 | DeepSeek V4 Pro (promo to 2026-05-31) | $0.435 | $0.0036 | $0.87 | **Sources to verify:** - Anthropic: [https://www.anthropic.com/api](https://www.anthropic.com/api)(or`platform.claude.com/docs/en/about-claude/pricing` ) - OpenAI: [https://developers.openai.com/codex/pricing](https://developers.openai.com/codex/pricing) - Gemini: [https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing](https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing) - DeepSeek: [https://api-docs.deepseek.com/quick_start/pricing](https://api-docs.deepseek.com/quick_start/pricing) - MiniMax: [https://platform.minimax.io/docs/pricing/overview](https://platform.minimax.io/docs/pricing/overview) - Z.ai / GLM: [https://docs.z.ai/guides/overview/pricing](https://docs.z.ai/guides/overview/pricing) - OpenRouter: [https://openrouter.ai/](https://openrouter.ai/) | Plan | $/month | What you get | Works with | |---|---|---|---| Claude Pro | $20 | 5h session cap + weekly cap (~40–80 Sonnet hrs/week) | Claude Code (native) | Claude Max 5x / 20x | $100 / $200 | 5× / 20× Pro | Claude Code (native) | ChatGPT Go / Plus / Pro | $8 / $20 / $100 | message-based (15–80 msgs / 5h on Plus) | Codex CLI | GitHub Copilot Free / Pro / Pro+ | $0 / $10 / $39 | usage credits (moving to credits Jun 2026) | Copilot agent | Cursor Pro | $20 | ~$20 credit pool (~225 Sonnet req/mo) | Cursor IDE | Z.ai GLM Coding Plan Lite / Pro | $10 / $30 | ~120 prompts/5h (Lite); GLM-5.x models | Claude Code, opencode, Cursor | MiniMax Coding Starter | $10 | ~100 prompts / 5h on M2.1 | Any | opencode Go | $10 ($5 first month) | $60/mo usage value across 13 open models | opencode (native) | opencode Zen | pay-as-you-go | per-token gateway, mostly $0.30–$3.20/M | opencode (native) | **Important:** quota caps on flat subs are usually measured in *prompts* (not tokens). If you blow through "120 prompts / 5h" with one heavy session you wait 5h — not great for an active coding day. For predictable cost on a budget, token-metered APIs through one gateway usually win. Per-prompt is tiny; per-day is what matters. Coding-agent turn averages **~5,000 input + 500 output tokens** (lots more if you load a big file). With **60% cache-hit** (typical for repeat-edit sessions): | Provider / Model | Tokens per $1 (light coding) | Approx prompts | |---|---|---| | Claude Sonnet 4.5 | ~250k mixed | ~40 prompts | | OpenAI gpt-5-codex | ~330k mixed | ~55 prompts | | Claude Haiku 4.5 | ~800k mixed | ~130 prompts | | Gemini 2.5 Flash | ~1.5M mixed | ~250 prompts | | Z.ai GLM-4.6 | ~1.8M mixed | ~300 prompts | | MiniMax M2 / Qwen3-Coder | ~3.5M mixed | ~580 prompts | | Gemini Flash-Lite | ~7M mixed | ~1,200 prompts | | DeepSeek V4 Flash | ~8M mixed | ~1,400 prompts | *(Indicative only — real cost depends on your prompt size + cache hit rate.)* **Token ≈ 4 characters** in English; Burmese script ≈ 1 character per token (worse ratio — same text uses more tokens in Burmese).**Input tokens**= your message + the model's context (files, system prompt, history).** Output tokens**= what the model writes back.** Cache read**(Claude/OpenAI/Gemini) = repeated input cached at ~10% price. Huge saver in coding agents that re-send the same files.** A "long context"**model (1M tokens) means you can paste a large codebase; you still pay per token.** Tip:**prefer agents that** stream + truncate**old turns instead of re-sending everything. **Day 1, no card available:****Gemini CLI**(personal account) → free, instant.** Day 1, with a card / Google account, want flexibility:****opencode + AI Studio API key**→ free Flash-Lite tier, scale to paid later.** Premium quality, ok with spend:****Claude Code** via Anthropic API or AWS Bedrock. Budget $5–10/student/mo, more for heavy use.**Cheapest paid bulk:****DeepSeek V4 Flash**(~$0.14/$0.28 per M tokens) via opencode.** Predictable flat:****Z.ai GLM Coding Plan Lite**($10/mo, works in Claude Code) or** opencode Go**($10/mo bundle). The bootcamp will publish a shared proxy when it's deployed + secured — at that point students will get a single virtual key that routes to whatever model the proxy is configured for. Until then, pick from the list above. **Prices verified early-mid 2026.** Confirm on each provider's official pricing page before quoting externally.**Free-tier limits change.** Google dropped 2.5 Pro free tier in April 2026; Flash dropped to ~250/day. OpenRouter's`:free` rate-limit can change without notice.**Cache assumptions matter.** A 60% cache-hit rate is realistic for coding agents that revisit the same files; one-shot questions get ~0% cache and cost more.**Quotas in prompts vs tokens are different things.** Flat subs cap prompts; APIs cap tokens. A "120 prompts/5h" plan is not equivalent to "X tokens/5h" — measure your usage profile before committing.**Burmese costs ~2× more in tokens than English** for the same meaning. Plan for it on bilingual projects. If you find a current price that disagrees with this table, **the live provider page wins** — open a PR to fix this doc.