AI Tools Digest: Week 2 - Model Tier Wars & The Great Price Negotiation
This week's AI Tools SWE GROWTH digest (Feb 11-15) dives into model tier debates, pricing psychology, and the emerging pattern of budget subscription combos. 194 messages, plenty of Indonesian slang preserved. 🔥
🔥 Hot Takes
Model Tier Wars: Does Codex Need X-High?
After leaked benchmarks comparing Codex performance hit the timeline, skepticism erupted:
"yang pake Codex real kah? 🤣"
The counter-argument came swiftly from actual users:
"codex kalo gk xhigh dia gk sebagus opus - hmmm keknya codex nya harus xhigh tapi mas. kasus saya"
Consensus: Base tier Codex underperforms vs Opus. X-high tier required for comparable quality. Pricing implications? Tier upgrades eat into cost savings.
The Great Price Negotiation Experiment
Kimi's promotional feature lets you haggle with an AI for first-month discounts. Yes, really.
Zain's triumphant share:
"Battled an AI for a great deal. Try topping that. - Nyoba tawar menawar sama Kimi 🤣"
Results: $0.99 (best) to $1.50 (common). Gamification of pricing doubles as engagement mechanism.
Reality check: Token consumption NOT as efficient as hoped. Quote from the field:
"Btw Kimi gk se hemat itu ternyata. Wkwkwkwk"
🛠️ Tools Deep Dive
Kimi K2.5 — kimi.moonshot.cn
Sentiment: Positive-Cautious
Mentions: 12
What's good:
- Built-in vision & web search (vs Minimax needing MCP)
- Agent swarms feature praised: "imo fitur agent swarms nya ini oke mas"
- Interactive pricing negotiation
The catch:
- Token consumption higher than expected
- Weekly limit resets at 2 PM (critical for heavy users)
Quote:
"Si kimi imo fitur agent swarms nya ini oke mas. vision n web udh built-in di modelnya"
GLM-5 — chatglm.cn
Sentiment: Excited
Mentions: 7
The sembako run: Free tier via Ollama triggered a rush:
"gass ada sembako lagi nih, lumayan buat nyoba2"
Key behaviors:
- Sharing accounts to split cost
- More generous limits than Kimi (confirmed by multiple users)
- Integration challenges with OpenClaw (failed attempts)
Conspiracy theory moment:
When Gemini leaked Chinese model artifacts:
"Gemini kesurupan Kimi 🤣 - Jgn bilang selama ini mereka running GLM"
Echoes of Windsurf/Cursor incidents (models tuned from Chinese LLMs).
Minimax M2.5 — hailuo.ai
Sentiment: Positive-Limited
Mentions: 5
Strengths:
- Speed & tool calling quality: "oke tool calling buat lama2 tasknya dan bs recover from failures"
- Good for long-running tasks with failure recovery
Limitations:
- NOT multimodal yet — vision & web require MCP setup
- Pricing starts at $100 (web tier)
Quote:
"Speed nya mas oke minimax dan kalo aku pengalaman pake, oke tool calling buat lama2 tasknya dan bs recover from failures"
OpenClaw — openclaw.ai
Sentiment: Complex Love-Hate
Mentions: 11
The token burn:
"Openclaw boros bgt asli"
Why?
Context bloat. MEMORY.md, SOUL.md, project files all included in every request:
"Mungkin depends ke contextnya pak, kalau openclaw kan include MEMORY, SOUL etc, ke dalam context jadi cukup boros"
Heavy user reality:
- Claude Max 20x users hitting weekly limits mid-week
- 5-hour limits now more common constraint than weekly
Architecture solution suggested:
Orchestrator pattern — route to sub-agents to reduce context bloat.
Interface preference:
Terminal vs Telegram comparison:
"Ini berasa beda feel nya. Kalo biasanya interface di terminal liat cli jalan ini cuman mantau report aja"
Amp Code — ampcode.com
Sentiment: Gratitude-Dependency
Mentions: 4
Current state:
- Free tier full (waitlist)
- Users rely on Amp Ads credits: "mengandalkan gratisan dari Amp Ads 🤣"
The subscription dream:
Why can't Amp do $20/month? Joe's explanation:
"Dan selama kita berharap bisa subskreb $20/bulan, Amp ga akan pernah memenuhi harapan kita. 🤣"
Quote:
"selama model price-nya masih API token... bakal sulit klo mau subskrek. wk9"
Fizzy vs Beads — Task Management Showdown
The scenario: Developer choosing task tracker for agent workflows.
Fizzy wins despite:
No dependent tasks feature yet:
"hmmm menarik, cuman fizzy kekurangannya dia belum bisa dependant task ya mas?"
Why Fizzy?
Simpler sync vs Beads' offline-first complexity.
New user reaction:
"Waaaah aku baru aja integrate beads wkwk. Ini kek waktu aku awal2 issue salah branch haha. Insha allah kucobain fizzy kl gitu."
Antfarm — github.com/snarktank/antfarm
Sentiment: Intrigued
Mentions: 3
Recommended to Zain during agent swarms discussion:
"mas zain coba ini mas - https://github.com/snarktank/antfarm"
Multi-agent orchestration framework gaining attention.
😂 Best Quotes (Indonesian Flavor)
On Codex skepticism:
"yang pake Codex real kah? 🤣"
On Gemini's Chinese model leak:
"Gemini kesurupan Kimi 🤣"
"Jgn bilang selama ini mereka running GLM"
On GLM-5 free tier:
"gass ada sembako lagi nih, lumayan buat nyoba2"
On OpenClaw token consumption:
"Openclaw boros bgt asli"
On Amp Code dependency:
"Amp code masih mengandalkan gratisan dari Amp Ads 🤣"
"sisanya ke ampcode, wkwkwkwk"
On limit-hitting club:
"Byuh. 🤣 🤣 🙈 Kemaren 5x sempat kena limit 5 jam"
On Indonesian corruption metaphor:
"Di Indo jangankan token LLM, BLT & MBG aja di-abuse penyakurannya. 😅"
(BLT = Big Language Transformer, MBG = Model Buatan Google)
📊 Trends
Emerging
- Price negotiation gamification (Kimi model)
- Multi-agent orchestration frameworks (Antfarm, agent swarms)
- Built-in > raw performance (vision/web built-in vs MCP)
- Budget subscription combos replacing single-provider Max tiers
- Example: Claude Max $100 + Kimi $39 vs full Claude Max $200
- Sembako culture: rushing free tiers before they close
Continuing
- Token cost anxiety & limit-hitting
- Subscription fatigue vs API pricing
- Chinese model skepticism (Gemini leak echoes Windsurf/Cursor)
- Task management tool search (Fizzy, Beads, GitHub Issues)
- OpenClaw context bloat discussions
Fading
- Blind faith in model marketing (benchmarks now scrutinized)
- Single-tool loyalty (combo subscriptions rising)
🎯 Action Items
- Try Antfarm for multi-agent orchestration
- Test GLM-5 via Ollama (free tier while it lasts)
- Evaluate Kimi K2.5 agent swarms feature
- Consider Litestream for SQLite sync (alternative to Turso)
- Watch Cerebras $50/month tier as Claude Max alternative ($50/month, 24M tokens/day)
📚 Articles Shared
- Anthropic leaked benchmarks — Bocoran future models
- Kimi vs Sonnet comparison — "Ini bahaya sih yah" (Kimi only matches Sonnet, not Opus)
- AI investment strategy reel — "Harusnya negara-negara pun begini"
Week-over-Week Shift
Week 1: No-IDE movement, terminal workflows, Augment Intent release
Week 2: Chinese models rising, token economics, multi-agent patterns
The shift: From workflow tooling to cost optimization & orchestration architecture.
Digest compiled from AI Tools SWE GROWTH WhatsApp group (194 messages, Feb 11-15). Slang preserved, context enriched, insights extracted.
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