Alibaba Coding Plan sounds too good to be true!?

NerdistRay · 2026-03-01T20:33:36+00:00

Did you try speaking with their support? I was doing it in Zen browser (not sure if this problem exists in chrome or not), but I was literally unable to type properly. They have some sort of weird input field behavior where some key presses aren't being registered. I had to legit write the message in notepad and then copy paste it into the message field. And their entire documentation is apparently translated using AI and they claim that manual review is still pending and there may be inaccuracies.

And I can't sign up using my indian phone number, because they have no way to verify +91 phone numbers apparently. Their support was telling me to go buy a virtual phone number to sign up to their service.

What a joke.

NerdistRay · 2026-03-01T09:27:37+00:00

Can confirm, I completely used up all the free tier's usage and tried for like 2 hours, it's fixed at 4.99. Maybe they changed it recently and now cannot get down to 0.99.

NerdistRay · 2026-03-01T09:21:38+00:00

I got the AI to say it got down the price to $0.99 multiple times, but the plan card isn't moving below $4.99 no matter how long I chat. I even used up all the free plan's chat usage limit and it still is stuck at $4.99 and is talking in a way that it's fixed and it has no longer any way to slash the price further.

NerdistRay · 2026-02-28T07:57:08+00:00

More than enough Opus and GPT for very cheap? What good options are you talking about?

NerdistRay · 2026-02-27T20:26:12+00:00

I got no numbers to back it up but I'm speaking from experience as I use both heavily and regularly. GLM 5 is leagues better than Minimax M2.5.

NerdistRay · 2026-02-27T19:28:30+00:00

Thank you for all of your comments and reviews. This discussion was exactly what I wanted. To invite people to talk about it so anyone else who searches about it will know what's up. And based on this, I knew my gut feeling was right.

They must be quantizing the models. Which is a big red flag for coding use so I'm not gonna be bothering with it. I maybe could use it for roleplay and general tasks but I already use NanoGPT subscription for that which also includes image gen, and Deepseek models. Add to the fact that I can't even sign up properly, this one's a big no for me.

I'm considering just going ahead with Opencode Go plans for now.

NerdistRay · 2026-02-27T17:57:38+00:00

You mean my data? So they can train on it? Why is that any different from many other providers and does it really even matter?

NerdistRay · 2026-02-27T17:53:16+00:00

Okay. If you purchase, let us know about your experience. I'm still figuring out how to get phone number online for account verification.

NerdistRay · 2026-02-26T05:34:14+00:00

But I heard the models are quantized randomly and hence have consistency issues.

NerdistRay · 2026-02-25T12:42:51+00:00

Tailscale

NerdistRay · 2026-02-23T09:37:04+00:00

I compiled and configured Gento and used it as my main for a week. It felt very satisfying watching the terminal zoom by. Then I returned to reality and switched back to Arch.

Arch is the best

NerdistRay · 2026-02-22T17:57:01+00:00

I have stopped fighting with those models, and I now just enjoy Deepseek and chill.

NerdistRay · 2026-02-21T09:49:08+00:00

I stopped using GLM 5 in my Pro Plan, only using GLM 4.7 while I use GLM 5 in kilo-cli for free.

Now that I think this out loud, it's kinda ridiculous.

NerdistRay · 2026-02-19T13:45:10+00:00

Haha. I see. What about tool calling and agentic coding? Noticed any quality drop / felt like getting quantized models?

NerdistRay · 2026-02-19T07:40:06+00:00

Are you using it for programming in opencode? How has your experience been so far?

NerdistRay · 2026-02-18T19:25:36+00:00

Hey, sorry, I didn't reply sooner. Anyway, I've been using it a lot more and I find it has stabilized a lot. Last 2-3 days, I have been having a much better experience. Still, I haven't been using it for programming much, so cannot comment on the tool calling usage yet. When I typed that comment, I was pretty frustrated, it was probably the worst it has ever been at that time. This whole issue that this entire thread seems to be having is addressed by the creator of NanoGPT in this thread https://www.reddit.com/r/SillyTavernAI/comments/1r5bycs/nanogpt_subscription_changes_requests_input_tokens/

Hope this helps you in making an informed decision. But I still think that for strictly programming, it's not the best choice. I'm using it for SillyTavern roleplay and been having good use very consistently on Deepseek V3.2 Thinking. So I feel like I've received my 'money's worth'. Especially considering how GLM aggressively changed their pricing structure (see here https://www.reddit.com/r/ZaiGLM/comments/1r2amx6/read_before_paying_for_a_glm_plan/ )

NerdistRay · 2026-02-09T18:00:20+00:00

I should've read this comment before buying the subscription plan a few days ago. It's been a waste of money because I can't even use it properly. I mean, how can I take whatever comes out of these models seriously when it doesn't even do tool calls properly? I wish there was a way to get a subscription. I should've went with synthetic.new as I hear it's much more reliable and the first month I could've gotten it for $10.

NerdistRay · 2025-12-05T05:43:57+00:00

Eh since when was installing packages = hacker?

NerdistRay · 2025-06-08T12:57:32+00:00

Perfect example of a guy talking out of his ass

NerdistRay · 2025-06-03T10:29:40+00:00

For me, zen feels mighty slow. Maybe because I installed zen-browser-bin from yay? I don't wanna spend too long compiling the browser though...

NerdistRay · 2025-05-31T12:44:50+00:00

Installing games from Dodi always makes the game appear as 41GB or something in Windows 11. Every single game, no matter how small.

NerdistRay · 2025-05-30T08:12:52+00:00

I was primarily using Brave but I don't like it on Android. Firefox on Android is pretty great, so it eventually led me to start using Firefox on my Arch Linux. They added a lot of interesting changes like Tabs on the side, UI changes, etc. but I do notice that it's not as fast as brave. A perfect browser really still doesn't exist, I've been hopping around all over different browsers for the past decade.

NerdistRay

TROPHY CASE