{"slug": "z-ai-coding-plan", "name": "Z.ai Coding Plan", "category": "ai-coding", "category_name": "AI coding tools", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 4, "warners": 0, "score": 2.872, "rising": -0.98, "first": "2025-12-21", "latest": "2026-08-28", "why": "Coding Plans by MiniMax ($20/mo for 1.7b tokens) and Z.ai (~$30/week use for $17/mo) are also tremendous value for money.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 1, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "Coding Plans by MiniMax ($20/mo for 1.7b tokens) and Z.ai (~$30/week use for $17/mo) are also tremendous value for money.", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://z.ai/subscribe", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Z.ai Coding Plan", "z.ai Coding Plan", "z.ai coding plan"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 783005156, "item_id": 48937822, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48937822", "by": "ignoramous", "date": "2026-07-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Coding Plans by MiniMax ($20/mo for 1.7b tokens) and Z.ai (~$30/week use for $17/mo) are also tremendous value for money.", "excerpt": "Possible, but pay-as-you-go Hy3 / DeepSeek v4 Pro / MiMo v2.5 Pro (from respective vendors) are genuinely good enough as daily drivers, given the costs (especially, low prices for input cache, which usually makes up 70%+ of total input for agentic workflows). I put in $10 in DeepSeek & Xiaomi MiMo, and I've barely used $1 each, in a week of coding work. Coding Plans by MiniMax ($20/mo for 1.7b tokens) and Z.ai (~$30/", "context": "", "use_case": "coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "Kimi K3 is now live"}, {"id": 744801201, "item_id": 46550075, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46550075", "by": "sergiotapia", "date": "2026-01-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Switched to the z.ai coding plan", "excerpt": "Switched to the z.ai coding plan, and used the GLM 4.7 model for a few complex changes since posting this, and it works really well. I don't think I will renew Anthropic, the open models have reached an inflection point.", "context": "", "use_case": "coding subscription", "switched_from": "Anthropic", "story": "Anthropic bans use of API in OpenCode CLI tool"}, {"id": 741622226, "item_id": 46351389, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46351389", "by": "brainless", "date": "2025-12-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "a (much cheaper) z.ai Coding Plan, which is like one fifth the cost", "excerpt": "I do not spend $100/month. I spend for 1 Claude Pro subscription and then a (much cheaper) z.ai Coding Plan, which is like one fifth the cost. I use Claude for all my planning, create task documents and hand over to GLM 4.6. It has been my workhorse as a bootstrapped founder (building nocodo, think Lovable for AI agents).", "context": "bootstrapped founder", "use_case": "cheap coding model access", "switched_from": "", "story": "A guide to local coding models"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [{"by": "brainless", "context": "bootstrapped founder", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46351389", "date": "2025-12-21"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["side projects coding", "coding", "coding subscription", "cheap coding model access"], "compared": [{"slug": "glm-flash", "name": "GLM Flash", "co": 1, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "claude", "name": "Claude", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "glm", "name": "GLM", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49479878", "title": "GLM-5.3 is now open-weight", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48935342", "title": "Kimi K3 is now live", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46549823", "title": "Anthropic bans use of API in OpenCode CLI tool", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46348329", "title": "A guide to local coding models", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 791684656, "item_id": 49480291, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49480291", "by": "scosman", "date": "2026-08-28", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "z.ai coder plan, both in opencode and direct API access.", "excerpt": "z.ai coder plan, both in opencode and direct API access. I use it for my side projects like https://github.com/scosman/Biscotti (on-device meeting transcription and summaries).", "context": "", "use_case": "side projects coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "GLM-5.3 is now open-weight"}, {"id": 783005156, "item_id": 48937822, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48937822", "by": "ignoramous", "date": "2026-07-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Coding Plans by MiniMax ($20/mo for 1.7b tokens) and Z.ai (~$30/week use for $17/mo) are also tremendous value for money.", "excerpt": "Possible, but pay-as-you-go Hy3 / DeepSeek v4 Pro / MiMo v2.5 Pro (from respective vendors) are genuinely good enough as daily drivers, given the costs (especially, low prices for input cache, which usually makes up 70%+ of total input for agentic workflows). I put in $10 in DeepSeek & Xiaomi MiMo, and I've barely used $1 each, in a week of coding work. Coding Plans by MiniMax ($20/mo for 1.7b tokens) and Z.ai (~$30/", "context": "", "use_case": "coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "Kimi K3 is now live"}, {"id": 744801201, "item_id": 46550075, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46550075", "by": "sergiotapia", "date": "2026-01-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Switched to the z.ai coding plan", "excerpt": "Switched to the z.ai coding plan, and used the GLM 4.7 model for a few complex changes since posting this, and it works really well. I don't think I will renew Anthropic, the open models have reached an inflection point.", "context": "", "use_case": "coding subscription", "switched_from": "Anthropic", "story": "Anthropic bans use of API in OpenCode CLI tool"}, {"id": 741622226, "item_id": 46351389, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46351389", "by": "brainless", "date": "2025-12-21", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "a (much cheaper) z.ai Coding Plan, which is like one fifth the cost", "excerpt": "I do not spend $100/month. I spend for 1 Claude Pro subscription and then a (much cheaper) z.ai Coding Plan, which is like one fifth the cost. I use Claude for all my planning, create task documents and hand over to GLM 4.6. It has been my workhorse as a bootstrapped founder (building nocodo, think Lovable for AI agents).", "context": "bootstrapped founder", "use_case": "cheap coding model access", "switched_from": "", "story": "A guide to local coding models"}]}