Cheapest AI coding plan for heavy agent use (Oct 2026)

"Cheapest" depends on how much usage you actually get per dollar, and most vendors don't publish that. Here's what they do publish, checked 2026-10-15, and where the honest answer is "unknown."

Published entry prices

GLM Coding Plan (Lite / Pro / Max): Starts at $18/mo; Pro and Max prices not on docs page. Works in Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode and other tools.
ChatGPT Plus (Codex): $20/mo. ChatGPT Pro ($100 / $200 / $500): $100, $200 or $500 per month.
Claude Pro: $20/mo monthly; $17/mo billed annually ($200 up front). Claude Max 5x: $100/mo (monthly billing only).
X Subscription (Grok + Cursor bundle): Plus $8, Premium $30, Super $100, Ultra $200 per month; Teams $30+/user.
Kimi Code: price unknown (we couldn't load its pricing page).

Who publishes real numbers

Only Z.ai publishes concrete caps: 5-hour credits: Lite 2,000 / Pro 12,000 / Max 28,000; Weekly credits: Lite 10,000 / Pro 60,000 / Max 140,000; off-peak usage at 50% (source). It also publishes estimated weekly token ranges by cache-hit rate. Anthropic, OpenAI and Cursor publish multipliers or estimates, not weekly caps.

Heavy use: what to compare

Is there a 5-hour window? ChatGPT Pro currently has none; Claude Pro/Max, ChatGPT Plus and GLM do.
Which models count? On The X Subscription, the included pool covers Grok and Cursor models; Claude and GPT in Cursor are billed at API price.
Measured value: wokey.ai measures real accounts and reports Claude Max 20x and Claude Pro as the highest API-value per dollar among the plans it measures. That's third-party data and can shift weekly.

A practical way to decide

Pick the model family you need first, then the cheapest tier that includes it with a window that fits how you work. If you need frontier Claude models all day, Max is Anthropic's route. If you live in Codex, Pro removes the 5-hour window. If you're cost-sensitive and fine with GLM models, GLM's published caps are the easiest to plan around. Use the plan picker to filter by budget.

FAQ

What is the cheapest AI coding plan?

By published entry price: ChatGPT Go ($8, limited Codex) and X Subscription Plus ($8, Grok models only). For full agent use, GLM Coding Plan starts at $18 and Claude Pro / ChatGPT Plus at $20.

Which plan has no 5-hour limit?

OpenAI says ChatGPT Pro plans currently have no five-hour limit in Codex.

Which vendor publishes exact limits?

Z.ai publishes 5-hour and weekly credit caps for the GLM Coding Plan. Anthropic, OpenAI and Cursor don't publish weekly cap sizes.

Is Kimi Code cheaper?

Unknown. We couldn't verify Kimi Code's price from its pricing page.