There’s also the “prepaid” alternative. Especially if you’re skittish about budgets. You topup you account for $10, and when you overflow (maybe by setting an alert to around $8), you can add an extra 5$ to make it to the end without interruption.

> You misdirected my quoted statement to assert a position I did not take.

Nope. You're reading way too much into what I'm saying, rather than reading the words I'm writing.

> When I say that flat-rate subs are necessary for traction, I mean that solely from a user experience perspective, not "subsidized usage is necessary for traction".

Sure. I never claimed that you said "subsidized usage is necessary for traction". It's "just" that your broader point is not relevant to the topic under discussion, which is Anthropic's financial situation. That's why I said

  If the flat-rate plans that you are aware of actually cover the cost of providing the service, then you're discussing an entirely different situation that's entirely inapplicable to the discussion about Anthropic's pricing and degrading level of service.

That situation doesn't describe what's going on with Anthropic and OpenAI, so subsidized usage absolutely is necessary for "traction" for them. Roughly no regular folks would pay the all-in cost for the service they provide.