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Comment by upbeat_general | Hacker News Reader

If I used a racecar to go 25mph in a residential neighborhood, I’d make a similar conclusion.

It was made available in my subscription so I tested it out. I'm glad I tested it in a subscription, since I'd be pretty irritated if I had spent that amount of money accidentally in API usage. I guess what I've learned is what I already know, which is that the newer models seem to increase costs a lot with no perceptible benefit to my workflow.

Wait, so it didn't cost you $153? Are you just extrapolating based on what it would have cost in API usage?

I said "cost", not "cost me". I use `ccusage` to track what my unsubsidized token spend would be since I'm sure these subscriptions won't stick around forever and I want to have a realistic idea of what these things actually cost in a professional setting.

To be fair though, even if it's not costing me that much it's evidently costing Anthropic a pretty penny, I'm up to like $800 in spend on my $200 subscription in less than a week.

What makes you think the API based cost is the cost to Anthropic?

Well, they're selling a non-essential commodity in a highly competitive industry with about zero lock in or customer loyalty, using the standard VC playbook of "capture the market then worry about costs". I don't see space for large margins in there, and if there are margins they're probably recent because of the IPO.

So you're assuming their subscriptions are subsidized?

Yes, heavily.

Hard agree

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