Their coding plan switched to credits, didn’t it? What are the rate limits like, compared to Anthropic or Kimi K3?
I remember trying their Coding Plan out before the change and the 5 hour limits felt too restrictive then even for light/medium work, especially cause of the whole peak and off-peak thing: https://blog.kronis.dev/blog/z-ai-s-glm-5-2-is-a-great-model...
Nowadays, I’d probably go with their Max plan if the rate limits are okay? Anyone using them now?
Oh also unrelated but ZCode was surprisingly good, which is surprising for a tool that came out of nowhere - even some of the critiques in my blog post have been patched out. Sadly they don’t support using Claude Code as an agent so can’t use it like Paseo or Kepler or Agent Orchestrator.
You're gonna have a had time getting straight answer to that out of the internet. There are now 4 different flavours of the Max plan floating around (Legacy V1, Legacy V2, New plans, and the current credit ones). And on top of that they have peak times. So ~8 scenarios, 24 in total across all feedback for their coding plans.
So when someone tells you they're having a good time on a GLM coding plan it's damn near unusable as a datapoint unless both parties are very clear about what precisely is being discussed
[It's been good for me though...V1 Max off peak...which is basically the best of the 24]
Wdym "sadly they don’t support using Claude Code"? For the longest time that's all Zai supported - Claude code. I'd run it via
export ZAI_ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL="https://api.z.ai/api/anthropic"
export ZAI_ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN="$ZAI_API_KEY"
claude-zai() {
{ local -; set -x; } 2>/dev/null
ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL="$ZAI_ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL" ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN="$ZAI_ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN" claude "$@"
}
$ claude-zai
I liked Claude Code to start with. But over time between 'CC cache thrashing undo' seetings (I see now accumulated in ~/.claude/settings.json) and Anthropic-anything becoming a liability - have not used it in while. ZCode is ok and use it to take advantage of the discount tokens on offer from time to time. But really glad to see that in omp (oh-my-pi) Zai is a 1st class provider, can be selected on it's own no configs shananigans needed. And fits in the overall picture. E.g. can select GLM-5.2 (now 5.3) assign role [plan] or glm-5-turbo [advisor].
Got reminded now of glm-5v-turbo - that 'v' was for vision - will try assign it role [vision] now in omp. See what happens. :-) Often times it's handy when describing gui problems if the harness/model 'can see'.
I am not talking about GLM models being served through an Anthropic compatible API, that part is perfectly fine and I'm glad they support it!
I am talking about ZCode, the program, being unable to delegate to other harnesses, like using Claude Code (or even OpenCode) within their UI, so that an Anthropic subscription can be used, because Anthropic don't let you use 3rd party harnesses directly.
ZCode doesn't seem to work at that level, it instead feels comparable to OpenCode or Codex or Claude Code directly, while also being desktop oriented - you just make API calls directly within it.
It's okay if it's not a goal of theirs, it's just that their UI is really really nice and that would be a cool direction for them to also go in some day.
Ah sorry - I misunderstood. Thanks for explaining it. Have not heard of Paseo nor Kepler, and have never tried Zed. Yeah I too assumed if I'm to try use OpenAI subscription outside Codex, or Anthropic subscription outside Claude Code - I'd get my account banned it's agains their rules. So I have never looked how using the whole harness from outside looks like either (except for 'claude -p'). Interesting. BTW I see now https://docs.z.ai/devpack/tool/codex Zai added OpenAI compatible end point.
Paseo had a really nice UI/UX, except sometimes sub-agents within OpenCode sessions would hang. Still, quite pleasant if you want something like the Codex or Claude Code desktop apps, but across various providers.
Kepler integrates with issue trackers like GitHub, you can just create a worktree from a ticket and let it churn, seemed like the second most polished option I tried, but there are obvious gaps - like moving cards manually, some missing UI options etc., which I'd chalk up to either the software just being that new or maybe being a little bit vibe-codey. Either way, one of the more promising options if you want something like Kanban board for agents.
Zed is mostly just a (really nice) text editor with some AI integrations, though it seems like they're also building a more agentic product as well - https://delta.dev/ haven't used that one much and am not in circumstances where I'd collaborate with people that closely, but there was a pretty cool podcast episode with the creators recently and it seems like it works pretty nicely for them! As an editor though, it succeeded where Fleet failed and has mostly replaced Visual Studio Code for me. Nothing against VSC, Zed just does most of the stuff I actually need out of the box.
Some of those tools interacting with Claude Code instead of trying to replace it is more or less the way to get Anthropic's models in other tools while still on a subscription (at least for now). How it works under the hood, go figure, there's ACP https://agentcommunicationprotocol.dev/introduction/welcome but also any number of hacky approaches.
To be fair, you can use Anthropic's models in many other harnesses directly, it's just that it then counts against API billing instead of your subscription, which ends up being way more expensive for individuals, but is kinda what you're supposed to do as a company.
I used the legacy plan with only the 5 hour limits on lite. It was super awesome but sadly not comparable to the new plan.
Currently I am on the new max plan with the 5hr limits and weekly limits, I can't speak for the credit plan. Using it exclusively in zcode because of the usage multiplier + the harness is genuinely good.
Easily do a billion tokens per week on my limits and generally have no problems with limits, however if I use it during peak hours I will hit the 5hr limit super fast even in zcode.
Zcode gives much more usage:
Normal hours 1x -> 0.67x usage multiplier
Peak hours 3x -> 2x usage multiplier
Peak lines up with the afternoon for me and I prefer coding morning/night so its not really a problem + I have the codex $20 plan and opencode go so I can always use other subs during peak hours.
If the peak hours are your main work hours (its a 4 hour window) then the value is going to be MUCH lower, especially in CC or other harnesses (1/3rd the usage limits is harsh).
It does also change a bit depending on demand, so I recommend getting the max plan because you get priority access if you really like the model, it would be a 10/10 recommendation for me if it had vision but rn its mainly useful for backend or throw away internal tools where IDK about the UI as much.
I remember trying their Coding Plan out before the change and the 5 hour limits felt too restrictive then even for light/medium work, especially cause of the whole peak and off-peak thing: https://blog.kronis.dev/blog/z-ai-s-glm-5-2-is-a-great-model...
Nowadays, I’d probably go with their Max plan if the rate limits are okay? Anyone using them now?
Oh also unrelated but ZCode was surprisingly good, which is surprising for a tool that came out of nowhere - even some of the critiques in my blog post have been patched out. Sadly they don’t support using Claude Code as an agent so can’t use it like Paseo or Kepler or Agent Orchestrator.