I have a subscription at work, and still I find myself wishing I could use a fast Chinese model. Something wired up to really fast inference - that rapidity of feedback is a feature in itself.

4.1 Flash seems to be in that sweet spot of very decent, really fast and really cheap. Even omitting the cost, it’s still compelling for staying in flow.

I'm actually shocked by how many people seem to have max subscriptions.

Something about renting that much compute doesn't sit right with me so I stick with the $20 subs.

> Once the subsidization ends and cost becomes significant I will take a serious look around for the best value models and switch off the expensive providers, but that time hasn't come yet.

There's a reason the labs in the US frontier oligopoly are using “safety” to lobby for antitrust exemptions for mutual coordination as well as anticompetitive regulation.