BUDGET.md — Course costs, honestly
Last verified: 2026-08-18. Path 1 usage-limit correction: 2026-09-07 (see the note under Path 1).
Freshness commitment: This file is updated whenever a cost-affecting upstream changes. Check WHAT-CHANGED.md for the most recent revision date. If you spot stale numbers, file an issue tagged freshness (see CONTRIBUTING.md).
Why this file exists
Most coding courses pretend the tools are free, then learners hit a paywall partway through and quit. This file does the opposite: the two honest cost tracks this course teaches, named, with concrete numbers, so you can pick yours before you create a single account. Module 0 Lesson 3 walks you through the same triage, at the moment you need it.
The two tracks (and a third option)
Every path through this course costs you something — money, or limits, or both. There's no free-forever option. What you're choosing between is: pay a predictable monthly amount for a larger usage allowance (Path 1), or pay nothing for a smaller one that can also change without much warning (Path 2). Both can ask you to wait on a heavy day. Both are honest paths.
Path 1: Claude Code desktop — predictable cost, not unlimited use
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Claude Code desktop (Pro) | $20/month billed monthly, or $17/month billed annually |
| Everything else the course needs | Free (see the module rows below) |
That $20 is the floor — there's no cheaper way to get Claude Code desktop, and no free plan includes it. What it buys: every lesson in this course, with a usage allowance that resets on a schedule. The allowance is real, not unlimited: on a heavy day the app can tell you to wait until it resets. Nothing in this course needs any paid extra turned on beyond the plan itself.
Correction, 2026-09-07: earlier versions of this file said Path 1 had "nothing that runs out" and "no built-in pauses". Anthropic's own help page — https://support.claude.com/en/articles/11145838-use-claude-code-with-your-pro-or-max-plan — says Pro and Max plans include Claude Code with usage limits. That page was confirmed by the course maintainer on 2026-09-07; the wording above follows it.
Pick Path 1 if: you have $20/month you're comfortable spending on this course and you'd rather pay for a bigger, predictable allowance than manage a free one.
Path 2: Codex, inside the ChatGPT desktop app — free to start
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| ChatGPT desktop app + Codex (free tier) | $0 to start — no card, no subscription |
| ChatGPT Plus (optional upgrade, same path) | Keeps Codex working the same way if the free tier ever narrows |
| Everything else the course needs | Free (see the module rows below) |
Codex is included on the free tier of ChatGPT, and that's genuinely free — this course installed it and made a first edit with it before writing a single Path 2 lesson. Two honest catches. First, OpenAI's own wording says Codex is on the Free plan "for a limited time." If that changes before you finish the course, it doesn't strand you — the paid ChatGPT plans keep Codex working exactly the same way, at a monthly cost instead of free. Second, the free allowance is real, not unlimited: on a heavy day, the app may ask you to wait before you can keep going, or offer you a paid plan. The exact size of that allowance isn't published and can change, so treat "it might ask you to wait sometimes" as the honest expectation, not a specific number.
Pick Path 2 if: $0 matters more to you than a bigger allowance, and you're fine with an occasional pause on a heavy day.
Switching is cheap
Nothing in this course locks you to the path you pick today. Lessons that meaningfully differ between the two tracks show both side by side, so switching later costs you exactly one thing: creating the account you skipped the first time.
The third option: OpenCode desktop
There's a third agent app worth knowing exists: OpenCode desktop. It's genuinely free and genuinely capable, but it's built for people comfortable finding their own way, not for a first-ever build, and it's the least polished of the three — still in beta. Cost-wise, its free models are trial models offered for a limited time, and they may learn from what you submit while you're using them; this course also hasn't verified how it saves your work, so there's no cost or safety story here as settled as Path 1 or Path 2's. This file names it so you know it exists — it isn't a path this course walks you through.
Retired: Gemini CLI
Gemini CLI was this course's free track through 2026-08-12. It's retired — the free track is Path 2, Codex inside the ChatGPT desktop app. See Module 0 Lesson 3.
No pay-per-use path
Earlier versions of this course had a third path: pay only for what you use, by pasting a long code that identifies your account into a separate program and watching a running total so it didn't add up. That path is retired, along with the separate program it needed to run in. Both of this course's tracks live entirely inside one app window, and neither asks you to manage a running total by hand.
Quick decision
Two questions, in order:
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Can you spend $20/month on this course? | Yes → Path 1, Claude Code desktop. Flat, predictable cost; a larger allowance that can still make you wait on a heavy day. |
| (If no) Are you OK with an occasional wait on a heavy day, in exchange for $0? | Yes → Path 2, Codex in the ChatGPT desktop app. Free to start, upgradeable in place if you ever need to. |
Switching later is cheap — see above. Module 0 Lesson 3 walks through this triage in more detail before you create any accounts.
Module-by-module cost divergences
Module 0 (Welcome) — both tracks
Lessons 1–5 use no AI. Lesson 6 is your first real use of your agent: it builds a small checklist page, you ask for one change, and you save it — a short session, well inside either path's allowance on an ordinary day. No new accounts beyond the two Lesson 4 creates.
Module 1 (Mental models) — both tracks
No AI tokens used. Module 1 is reading and diagramming exercises. Free for both tracks.
Modules 2 and 3 (Toolchain & The Loop) — both tracks
Expect AI use to stay light through these modules. Neither path's per-lesson cost should differ from its baseline: Path 1 stays inside its flat $20/month plan and its usage allowance, Path 2 inside the free ChatGPT allowance — either can ask you to wait on a heavy day.
Note: Module 3.5 (the code-reading module that sat between Modules 3 and 4) was retired 2026-08-12, alongside the rest of the terminal-era course. What used to be "Modules 2 / 3 / 3.5" is now Modules 2 and 3.
Module 4 (Thread project — build)
Module 4 adds two more accounts: Supabase (your database) and Vercel (where the app goes live). Both are free tier — the lessons state that both free plans cover everything this module builds. Expect this to be the course's heaviest module for AI use, and the module where either path is most likely to ask you to wait; the divergence between paths is the same shape as every other module — Path 1 inside its flat $20/month plan and its allowance, Path 2 inside its free allowance.
Module 5 (Operating the build)
Module 5 adds no new accounts and no new costs — nothing new gets built, and the lessons need nothing beyond the live app and the sign-ins Module 4 already left you. Expect the same shape as every other module: Path 1 inside its flat $20/month plan and its allowance, Path 2 inside its free allowance, either with the same occasional-wait possibility.
Module 6 (After it's live)
Module 6 adds no new accounts and no new costs. Its lessons say so directly: nothing to install, nothing to set up, and nothing to prepare — the module works on the app Module 5 left live, at the link it already has. Only one of its four lessons changes that app on purpose. Expect AI use in the same shape as every other module: Path 1 inside its flat $20/month plan and its allowance, Path 2 inside its free allowance, either with the same occasional-wait possibility. The re-check this module has you run after any change happens in your browser, against your own live app — it costs about fifteen minutes of your time and nothing else.
Module 7 (Where to go from here)
No AI tokens used, no accounts, nothing to install. Nothing in Module 7 runs — no build, no repair and no check — and its three lessons ask you to write things down rather than to ask your agent for anything. Free for both tracks. This is also where the list ends, because Module 7 is the last module.
Hidden costs not on this table
These are zero or near-zero today but the course names them so you're not surprised:
- Custom domain (optional): ~$10–15/year if you want to own a domain for your deployed thread project. Vercel offers
*.vercel.appsubdomains free.
How this file stays accurate
- Numbers above carry a
Last verified:date. The freshness commitment is: when an upstream changes (Claude Code Pro pricing, ChatGPT's free-tier mechanics, Supabase or Vercel free-tier terms), this file updates within 30 days, andWHAT-CHANGED.mdrecords the date. - Quarterly smoke test (per
CONTRIBUTING.md) re-verifies both tracks. - If you find a number that's wrong, file an issue tagged
freshness.
Related artifacts
VERSIONS.md— pinned tool versions; check before reasoning about a tool-specific cost.WHAT-CHANGED.md— what shifted between course revisions.CONTRIBUTING.md— how to file a freshness issue or PR a correction.