Why do chat apps not do this?
Hey guys, had a question for Theo but I am just going to put it here cause if it’s good he will see it.
With chat apps like t3 chat and others why do they not just support an API option. What I mean by this is a API key that give me access for 8$ a month to exactly what I am limited to by the chat app?
I don’t see a reason why it wouldn’t be a feature. It’s exactly the same as the chat app with the same limits etc, but it’s under my subscription.
I know Anthropic has something similar with Claude Code, it’s now covered by the 20$+ subscription but it’s locked to the cli application, why can’t we just get access to the api.
I feel like t3 chat could really stand out if they had this and I would pay more for a feature like it, API + Webapp 15$ or something, with slightly higher limits for coding.
I am getting tired of this agentic coding stuff, I am not having fun doing what I love anymore, AI is stating to genuinely holding me and my startup back, fixing and writing stuff, over and over. (AI uses sooo many useEffects lol)
I want to build advanced inline coding. I think a t3 api would be really good option for people to use different modes stacked for different situations.
Hope this prompts interesting discussion!
Solution:Jump to solution
cost. pretty much every service that provides an API is cutting down their monthly subs in favour of usage based pricing, otherwise it's not sustainable
I think Theo mentioned in a video or stream how the usage pattern of API access is way different than chat and wouldn't work
also if you just want an API with all the models available, then I'd look at openrouter. usage based however ...
4 Replies
Solution
cost. pretty much every service that provides an API is cutting down their monthly subs in favour of usage based pricing, otherwise it's not sustainable
I think Theo mentioned in a video or stream how the usage pattern of API access is way different than chat and wouldn't work
also if you just want an API with all the models available, then I'd look at openrouter. usage based however
https://openrouter.ai
I see, ok, makes sense. I still think that you could just limit the API to the same as the chat so the costs equal, but maybe it's more susceptible to over usage/attack.
The costs won't be equal because the way people use a chat app and an API are very different. In particular, with the 8$/month price ina chat app you have a lot of people that cost less than 1$ in API cost and you have relatively limited number of power users that cost 50$+ in API prices.
If they were to offer API access then that split would be significantly different, to the point that the offered limits would no longer be sustainable at this pricepoint.
I think Theo discussed this in the video about cursor price changes drama
At that point you're just wrapping openrouter.... So you couldn't compete on price.