How I Found the Best AI Coding Model Without Going Broke
So here's the thing. I just finished a coding bootcamp a few months ago, and I was riding that high of "I can build anything!" Then I tried to ship my first real project and immediately ran into walls. I needed help. I needed AI. But every time I opened Twitter, someone was yelling about a new model being better than the last one, and my brain just couldn't keep up.
I remember staring at my screen one night, exhausted, thinking "okay but which one do I actually use?" I was shocked at how confusing this space had become. I had no idea there were so many options, and I definitely had no idea how much the prices varied.
So I did what any slightly obsessive bootcamp grad would do. I spent two weeks running the same coding tasks through ten different AI models and tracked every result. I'm not going to pretend I did some super rigorous academic study. I just wrote down what worked, what didn't, and which ones made me want to throw my laptop.
Here's what I found.
