It’s that time again—my bi-weekly deep dive into AI tools. I’ve reorganized my thoughts, and here’s how my agentic tool ranking now looks:
-
Claude Code with Claude Pro. When you master the agent and set up a solid workflow, this is the most powerful option. However, I often can’t complete a single workflow before the Pro quota is used up. The reputation of Claude Code costing $100+ per month is well-earned.
-
Claude IDE / Agent. If I haven’t used up my $20 per month with Claude Code, I’ll use this. I’ve been using it for a while and am quite familiar with it. But if the quota runs out, I’m highly unlikely to top it up and will probably switch to the following options.
-
Gemini-CLI. The free version gives me access to 5-6 Gemini Pro sessions, and the context size seems to be decent.
-
Qwen-CLI’s free version. I can basically use this one indefinitely.
I’d immediately switch to a different tool if Claude Code ever becomes available via OAuth with Pro. With the emergence of Gemini-CLI and Qwen-CLI, Cursor is no longer my go-to option now. Plus, Qwen-Code could potentially become very cheap because it might be possible to get a few people to pool resources for an on-premise version, which would allow for unlimited use—theoretically, this seems viable. Also, Groq has an OSS-120B model with extremely low latency.
Just two months ago, I wouldn’t have considered Claude Code expensive. But today, I’m starting to hesitate about continuing to use it. Cost is never an absolute factor, especially in a field that develops on a weekly, or even daily, basis. To be fair, I still haven’t figured out if Cursor’s new billing model is more expensive or cheaper. With the new model, I think I’d consider using the old billing method next month plus Gemini-CLI for asking questions (because the best part of the new model is the freedom to ask questions without feeling burdened, and I think Gemini or Qwen would work just as well for that).
Since Cursor’s agent came out with a bang late last year, this is the first time I’ve seriously considered dropping my Cursor subscription. I wonder what new feature Cursor could possibly introduce to impress me enough to stay. If things continue this way, I feel that in two or three months, I might have other, cheaper alternatives to replace my current workflow.