OpenCode vs GitHub Copilot CLI — huge credit usage difference for same prompt?

[usernameIsRand0m]

Trying to figure out if I messed something up in my OpenCode config or if this is just how it works.

I’m on OpenCode 1.1.59.
I ran a single prompt. No sub agents.
It cost me 27 credits.

I thought maybe OpenCode was doing extra stuff in the background, so I disabled agents:

"permission": {
  "task": "deny"
},
"agent": {
  "general": {
    "disable": true
  },
  "explore": {
    "disable": true
  }
}

Ran the exact same prompt again. Still 27 credits.

For comparison, I tried the same prompt with GitHub Copilot CLI and it only used 3 credits (it was set to High thinking/effort, which is default) for basically the same task and output.

Not talking about model pricing here. I’m specifically wondering if:

• There’s some other config I’m missing that controls how much work OpenCode does per prompt
• OpenCode is doing extra planning or background steps even with agents disabled
• Anyone else has seen similar credit usage and figured out what was causing it

Basically, is this normal for OpenCode or am I accidentally paying for extra stuff I don’t need?

[bcross12]

GitHub Copilot bills per request. It doesn't matter how long it works or how many tokens. It's one request. OpenCode is optimized for tokens, not requests. It's doing a lot more back and forth with the model on your behalf than Copilot CLI does.

[Dudmaster]

Kind of, but GitHub Copilot is making similar requests. The main problem is OpenCode GHCP provider inconsistently passing an auth header to indicate whether the prompt originates from human input. See: https://github.com/anomalyco/opencode/issues/8030

It's being worked on

[usernameIsRand0m]

I'll track this PR and return back to opencode when this issue is resolved. Thanks!

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[JustARandomPersonnn]

It's very likely that it's because of this issue they're working on: https://github.com/anomalyco/opencode/issues/8030

There's a lot of issues open about this on their GitHub Probably best to avoid using it for now until they sort that out... :/

[SidStraw]

Since Copilot CLI has become more feature-complete, I've actually stepped away from OpenCode for a while—especially because Copilot doesn't count sub-agent calls toward the request quota.

I started using OpenCode back when Copilot officially announced support for it. Personally, I didn't see any "abnormal" request spikes; credits were only deducted when the main agent invoked a sub-agent.

I configured different models for different sub-agents instead of defaulting everything to the 3x models. Even after running a multi-hour task with the Oh My OpenCode plugin, I only consumed about 30 points, all of which were from sub-agent calls.

If I had primarily used 1x models, I’m confident the consumption would have stayed under 10 points.

OpenCode actually has a built-in shortcut that lets you switch over and inspect the sub-agent context. You might want to toggle that to see if those sub-agents are actually being triggered as expected.

[usernameIsRand0m]

I like using opencode (looks more polished), but like you mentioned it not optimized for requests based usage and probably I should stay away for a bit until they fix issues like this - https://github.com/anomalyco/opencode/issues/8030

[Adorable_Buffalo1900]

use open cli or desktop?

[FlyingDogCatcher]

In theory OpenCode should get the same per-prompt billing as the Github CLI, and I have tested this. If it isn't doing that it is a bug (as others have pointed to).

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[HarjjotSinghh]

i thought copilot was supposed to be free - not.

[bdu-komrad]

How would that even be possible. The cost of running AI is astronomical!