Vibe Code Tours — student setup (Linux/macOS/WSL): nvm+Node22, uv+Python3.12, git, Claude Code + verify

A developer has published a verified pricing and setup guide for AI coding tools, comparing free and paid options for students using Linux, macOS, or WSL. The guide recommends Google Gemini CLI for zero-cost, no-card-required access with 60 requests per minute, or opencode with a Gemini API key for multi-provider flexibility, while noting Claude Code as the top-quality paid option at $5–10 per student per month. The post includes detailed per-model pricing tables for providers including Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, DeepSeek, and others, with all figures verified as of early-mid 2026.

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.