How my LLM coding subscriptions escalated

It started very innocently.

1. Free ChatGPT
Back then it was already called vibecoding, but I still didn’t really believe in LLMs for real coding tasks.
I mostly used it instead of Google. A bit more advanced Google.

I clearly remember questions like:

"Our designer has an animation idea (attached file) — what’s the best way to implement this in Flutter?”

Useful, but very exploratory. No real trust yet.

2. ChatGPT Plus ($20, on my girlfriend’s account)
I still didn’t fully trust GPT to write code for me.
But the Pro subscription helped in a different way:

– longer conversations
– architectural discussions
– switching between models and access to latest models
– sanity-checking ideas

It felt more like a whiteboard discussion than coding assistance.

3. Free Cursor (≈ 1 month)
Copy-pasting from ChatGPT into my project got annoying very fast.
Most real tasks need context across multiple files.

I was already coding in VS Code anyway, so Cursor felt like a smart wrapper on top of my usual workflow, not a completely new tool.

I mostly used Cursor via tab completion — it honestly felt like it was reading my mind.
Occasionally I asked the side-panel agent questions, but not that often.

4. Cursor Pro ($20)
The free tier wasn’t enough anymore:

– small request limits
– even tab completion stops working after some time

I stayed on it for a few months and slowly adapted.
More and more routine tasks moved to the agent.

I learned about rules, connected MCPs (Figma MCP is 🔥 for frontend).
Cursor also kept adding bonus credits — roughly +$80–90 on top of a single monthly subscription.

I still mostly used it for routine tasks — cases where:
– everything is clear
– I can quickly validate the result
– and fix things manually if needed

5. Cursor $20 + Claude Code $20
I kept hitting Cursor’s limits and decided to try the already hyped Claude Code in parallel.

I had heard about skills and sub-agents, but never really touched them (now they are also available in latest Cursor version).
I spent ~45 minutes experimenting non-stop, building my first custom skill... and hit the 5-hour limit before it was even ready.
Opus 4.5, thinking mode.

Pain.
Sadness.
Now what?

6. Cursor $20 + Claude Code $100
Relatively recently, I upgraded to the 10× Claude Code plan.

If you want to actually experiment with agents, sub-agents, skills, and hooks — iterate, break things, rebuild — upgrading the subscription starts to make sense.

My current setup:
– simple tasks → Cursor (with composer-1). Works surprisingly well.
– more complex tasks → Claude Code (Sonnet 4.5 or Opus 4.5)

What is your setup?