| This text initially appeared on Medium. Tim O’Brien has given us permission to repost right here on Radar. |
If you’re working with AI instruments like Cursor or GitHub Copilot, the actual energy isn’t simply accessing completely different fashions—it’s understanding when to make use of them. Some jobs are OK with Auto. Others want a stronger mannequin. And generally it is best to bail and swap when you proceed spending cash on a posh downside with a lower-quality mannequin. Should you don’t, you’ll waste each money and time.
And that is the lacking dialogue in code technology. There are just a few “camps” right here; the vast majority of individuals writing about this seem to view this as a fantastical and enjoyable “vibe coding” expertise, and some individuals on the market are attempting to make use of this know-how to ship actual merchandise. In case you are in that final class, you’ve in all probability began to understand which you can spend a implausible sum of money when you don’t have a technique for mannequin choice.
Let’s make it very particular—when you join Cursor and drop $20/month on a subscription utilizing Auto and you might be pleased with the output, there’s not a lot to fret about. However in case you are beginning to run brokers in parallel and are paying for token consumption atop a month-to-month subscription, this put up will make sense. In my very own expertise, a single developer working alone can simply spend $200–$300/day (or 4 occasions that determine) if they’re attempting to deal with a venture and have opted for the most costly mannequin.
And—in case you are an organization and also you give your builders limitless entry to those instruments—prepare for some surprises.
My Escalation Ladder for Fashions…
- Begin right here: Auto. Let Cursor path to a powerful mannequin with good capability. If output high quality degrades or the loop happens, escalate the difficulty. (Cursor explicitly says Auto selects amongst premium fashions and can swap when output is degraded.)
- Medium-complexity duties: Sonnet 4/GPT‑5/Gemini. Use for targeted duties on a handful of information: strong unit checks, focused refactors, API remodels.
- Heavy raise: Sonnet 4 – 1 million. If I have to do one thing that requires extra context, however I nonetheless don’t wish to pay prime greenback, I’ve been beginning to transfer up fashions that don’t rapidly max out on context.
- Ultraheavy raise: Opus 4/4.1. Use this when the duty spans a number of tasks or requires lengthy context and cautious reasoning, then swap again as soon as the large transfer is completed. (Anthropic positions Opus 4 as a deep‑reasoning, lengthy‑horizon mannequin for coding and agent workflows.)
Auto works superb, however there are occasions when you’ll be able to sense that it’s chosen the incorrect mannequin, and when you use these fashions sufficient, if you find yourself taking a look at Gemini Professional output by the verbosity or the ChatGPT fashions by the best way they go about fixing an issue.
I’ll admit that my heavy and ultraheavy decisions listed below are biased in direction of the fashions I’ve had extra expertise with—your personal expertise would possibly range. Nonetheless, you must also have an analogous escalation checklist. Begin with Auto and solely improve if you should; in any other case, you’re going to be taught some classes about how a lot this prices.
Watch Out for “Considering” Mannequin Prices
Some fashions assist express “pondering” (longer reasoning). Helpful, however costlier. Cursor’s docs word that enabling pondering on particular Sonnet variations can rely as two requests beneath staff request accounting, and within the particular person plans, the identical thought interprets to extra tokens burned. Briefly, pondering mode is superb—use it while you want it.
And when do you want it? My rule of thumb right here is that once I perceive what must be carried out already, once I’m asking for a unit check to be polished or a way to be executed within the sample of one other… I normally don’t want a pondering mannequin. Alternatively, if I’m asking it to research an issue and suggest numerous choices for me to select from, or (one thing I do usually) once I’m asking it to problem my choices and play satan’s advocate, I’ll pay the premium for the perfect mannequin.
Max Mode and When to Use It
Should you want large context home windows or prolonged reasoning (e.g., sweeping modifications throughout 20+ information), Max Mode may help—however it’ll devour extra utilization. Make Max Mode a short-term software, not your default. If you end up continually requiring Max Mode to be turned on, there’s a superb probability you might be “overapplying” this know-how.
If it must devour 1,000,000 tokens for hours on finish? That’s normally a touch that you simply want one other programmer. Extra on that later, however what I’ve seen too usually are managers who suppose that is just like the “vibe coding” they’re witnessing. Spoiler alert: Vibe coding is that factor that folks do in displays as a result of it takes 5 minutes to make a foolish online game. It’s 100% not programming, and to make use of codegen, right here’s the key: You must perceive easy methods to program.
Max Mode and pondering fashions will not be a shortcut, and neither are they a substitute for good programmers. Should you suppose they’re, you’re going to be paying prime greenback for code that may in the future must be rewritten by a superb programmer utilizing these identical instruments.
Most Vital Tip: Watch Your Invoice as It Occurs
Crucial tip is to commonly monitor your utilization and utilization charges in Cursor, since they seem inside a minute or two of operating one thing. You possibly can see utilization by the minute, the variety of tokens consumed, and in some circumstances, how a lot you’re being charged past your subscription. Make a behavior of checking a few occasions a day, particularly throughout heavy classes, and ideally each half hour. This helps you catch runaway prices—like spending $100 an hour—earlier than they get out of hand, which is completely doable when you’re operating many parallel brokers or doing resource-intensive work. Paying consideration ensures you keep in command of each your utilization and your invoice.
Hold Monitor and Keep away from Loops
The opposite factor you should do is preserve monitor of what works and what doesn’t. Over time, you’ll discover it’s very straightforward to make errors, and the fashions themselves can generally fall into loops. You would possibly give an instruction, and as a substitute of resolving it, the system retains operating the identical course of time and again. Should you’re not paying consideration, you’ll be able to burn by way of loads of tokens—and some huge cash—with out really getting sound output. That’s why it’s important to observe your classes intently and be able to interrupt if one thing seems to be prefer it’s caught.
One other pitfall is pushing the fashions past their limits. There are duties they’ll’t deal with effectively, and when that occurs, it’s tempting to maintain rephrasing the request and asking once more, hoping for a greater consequence. In follow, that always results in the identical cycle of failure, besides you’re footing the invoice for each try. Realizing the place the boundaries are and when to cease is essential.
A sensible approach to keep on prime of that is to take care of a operating diary of what labored and what didn’t. File prompts, outcomes, and notes about effectivity so you’ll be able to be taught from expertise as a substitute of repeating costly errors. Mixed with maintaining a tally of your reside utilization metrics, this behavior will allow you to refine your strategy and keep away from losing each money and time.
