What to try after z.ai

Why migrate off z.ai

Per user feedback: “z.ai is kinda crappy.” The pricing is aggressive but the experience isn’t worth it. Common pain points:

• Promo pricing first cycle, then doubles (per r/CLine discussion)
• Rate limits are prompt-based (5hr rolling), which doesn’t match token-heavy workflows
• Model responses are tuned for Chinese market; English coding tasks can feel off

Ordered migration path

Step 1: Start with free tiers to validate

• Kilo Gateway Free: 0/mo, no credit card, BYOK supported. Try OpenAI/Anthropic/Anthropic-keyed models without commitment.
• GitHub Copilot Free: 50 premium requests/mo — enough to test the IDE integration but not heavy use.

Step 2: Pick a subscription based on your stack

Step 3: BYOK path for cost optimization

Once you’ve validated a subscription, run heavy work via direct API access:

• OpenRouter for ad-hoc per-token experiments (no subscription, 339+ models)
• Kilo Gateway PAYG for Kilo-routed BYOK
• Skynet (private proxy) if you have access — currently 33 curated models including private skynet minimax-m3

Don’t do this

• Don’t subscribe to Claude Code Max ($200/mo) until you’ve validated Opus is worth the 10x cost over Pro.
• Don’t subscribe to z.ai Coding Max ($80/mo) — the user’s own assessment is “kinda crappy”, so paying 4x Lite for more GLM is unlikely to change the experience.
• Don’t keep multiple subscriptions running simultaneously. Pick one for a month, evaluate, then iterate.

Cost sanity check