I replaced Claude Code with a team of tiny specialists, and the boring setup worked better
Earlier this week, I was trying to build a fun project using Claude Code, and the number of tokens I burned made me realize two things -- I can’t keep spending this much on AI, and Claude is ridiculously expensive. The best frontier models out there, whether you are using Opus 4.8 or Fable 5, are fantastic and can get things done, but they are not built for sustainability. They are token guzzlers, and if you just want to mess around, build things, and break things, these are not the models you should be using. I realized this quite late, but when I did, I replaced Claude with a bunch of specialized tiny local LLMs. That gave me the freedom to build whatever I wanted without constantly worrying about running out of tokens.
Earlier this week, I was trying to build a fun project using Claude Code, and the number of tokens I burned made me realize two things — I can’t keep spending this much on AI, and Claude is ridiculously expensive. The best frontier models out there, whether you are using Opus 4.8 or Fable 5, are fantastic and can get things done, but they are not built for sustainability. They are token guzzlers, and if you just want to mess around, build things, and break things, these are not the models you should be using. I realized this quite late, but when I did, I replaced Claude with a bunch of specialized tiny local LLMs. That gave me the freedom to build whatever I wanted without constantly worrying about running out of tokens.
Constance Roy
France
France
Published by: aplhsindia.in
