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Best model for OpenCode, Cline and Claude Code: options by budget

We have not benchmarked models inside OpenCode, Cline or Claude Code, so we name no single best one. As of 2026-10-26 (America/Chicago), the options by list price are a frontier model such as Claude Opus 5.5 ($4/$20 per million tokens), a mid-price model such as GPT-6.1 Terra ($1/$5), a cheap worker such as DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, or a local model.

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Checked by Agentic Weekly's editorial process: vendor docs and price lists re-read.

Last verified: 2026-10-26 (America/Chicago) · Versions covered: Vendor pricing and docs read 2026-10-26; Claude Code 2.1.310 only in our separate partial local-model test of 2026-10-25 · Evidence: Reported (see “What we tested”)

Quick options by budget

This table gives prices, not quality. We did not test how well any model drives these tools, so it does not rank them. "Where it works" is limited to what vendor docs say.

Model options for coding agents by budget, list prices from vendors, read 2026-10-26 (America/Chicago)
Budget tierModelList price per 1M tokensWhere it works, per vendor docsCaveat
FrontierClaude Opus 5.5$4 input, $20 output, $0.20 cache readsClaude Code natively (opus alias on the Anthropic API); OpenCode and Cline have Anthropic provider support in their docsHighest price of the options here; plan access is in Is Claude Opus 5.5 free?
Mid-priceGPT-6.1 Terra$1 input, $5 output, $0.05 cached inputOpenAI API; see which coding agents can use Terra for each toolNot confirmed in the Cline or OpenCode pickers
Mid-priceKimi K3.1 Pro$2 input, $10 output, $0.20 cached inputKimi API; Vercel AI Gateway lists itOpen weights promised but not yet released, see the weights tracker
Mid-priceClaude Sonnet 5.5$2 input, $10 output, $0.10 cache readsClaude Code (sonnet alias on the Anthropic API)See which Claude model to use
Cheap workerDeepSeek V4.1 Flash¥1 input and ¥4 output off-peak, ¥2 and ¥8 at peak; ¥0.02 or ¥0.04 cache hits (DeepSeek lists CNY; we do not convert)DeepSeek says its API supports OpenAI and Anthropic formats and has setup pages for Claude Code, Codex and OpenCodePeak is Beijing time Mon-Fri 9:00-12:00 and 14:00-18:00; open weights under MIT per Hugging Face
Cheap workerClaude Haiku 5.5$0.10 input, $0.50 output up to 100K-token promptsClaude Code (haiku alias); Anthropic suggests it as a subagentAnthropic says Sonnet 5.5 and Opus 5.5 remain better for complex agentic coding
LocalA model served by OllamaYour own hardwareRun Claude Code with a local modelOur test was a small model on one headless edit; it says nothing about quality or about Claude models

The frontier option: when it is worth paying

Anthropic's docs say Claude Code's opus alias resolves to Opus 5.5 on the Anthropic API, and Anthropic's own guide calls Opus 5.5 the place to start for most workloads. Whether the higher price pays off depends on your tasks and is the thing to test on your own repository before committing; we have not measured it. See GPT-6.1 Terra vs Claude Opus 5.5 for a price-only comparison with a mid-price OpenAI model.

The cheap worker option

DeepSeek's price page lists deepseek-flash, served by DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017, with a 1M-token context and up to 384K output, and says the API supports Anthropic-format requests at https://api.deepseek.com/anthropic. Its docs menu lists setup pages for Claude Code, Codex and OpenCode. One cost note from that page: Search and Fetch calls made through the DeepSeek Harness, Claude Code or Codex are currently not billed and, per DeepSeek, will be billed per request from 00:00 Beijing time on 2026-11-01. Community reports of budget setups exist (for example a blog and r/opencode threads), but we have not verified them and do not rely on them here.

The local option

Claude Code can be pointed at a local model served by Ollama; our local-model guide records a partial test from 2026-10-25 on Claude Code 2.1.310. A small local model edited a file when given the exact path and strings and made no edit on a vaguer prompt. That is the extent of our evidence: no hardware advice, and nothing about larger models. See also Ollama.

How to set the model in each tool

Where to choose the model in each tool, from vendor docs read 2026-10-26
ToolHowDoc
OpenCodeAdd a provider's API key with the /connect command, then run /models to pick; OpenCode Zen and OpenCode Go are OpenCode's own curated optionsOpenCode providers
ClineChoose a provider in settings (its docs list Anthropic, OpenAI, DeepSeek, Google Gemini, OpenRouter, OpenAI Compatible, local models and others), enter credentials, then choose the model from the Model dropdownCline docs
Claude CodeRun /model with an alias (opus, sonnet, haiku, fable) or a full model ID, or start with claude --model <alias>; other vendors' models go through a gateway you configureClaude Code model config

What we tested

We tested the tools, not the models. Our smoke tests of OpenCode, Cline CLI and Claude Code cover whether the tools install and run within their stated scope. They do not measure model quality, so nothing on this page is a measured ranking. For benchmark-based comparisons see best LLM for coding, which labels vendor-reported numbers as such.

  • opencode: Update when convenient for the runtime security fixes; pick opencode if you want an open-source agent that is not tied to one model vendor. Tested (smoke test, 2026-10-25, local Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct, not vendor models).
  • Cline: A good open-source pick if you want an agent inside your IDE or a CLI and an SDK to embed it; the October notes are incremental. Reported (not run by us).
  • Claude Code: Update now if you use the sandbox or run Claude Code on a cloud provider; skip if you wanted flashy new features, this is a hardening release. Tested (smoke test, 2026-10-25, local Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct, not vendor models).

FAQ

What is the best free model for OpenCode?

We did not test any, and we found no vendor statement naming one. OpenCode's docs say OpenCode Zen is a curated list and OpenCode Go a low-cost subscription; neither is described as free.

Can Claude Code run a local model?

Yes: in our partial test on 2026-10-25 a small local model served by Ollama edited a file on a precisely worded prompt. See the local-model guide; the test says nothing about quality or about Claude models.

Is DeepSeek V4.1 Flash good for coding agents?

We have not tested it. DeepSeek's price page lists it with a 1M context and Anthropic-format API support and has setup pages for Claude Code, Codex and OpenCode; whether it is good at your tasks is something to test.

Kimi vs DeepSeek vs Qwen for planning?

We cannot say from evidence we hold. We list Kimi K3.1 Pro and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash prices above, but we did not research Qwen models for this page and have not compared any of them on planning tasks.

What is the best model for Cline with Ollama?

We did not test Cline with Ollama. Cline's docs list local models as a provider option; check its docs for supported setups, and see our local-model guide for what we did run with Claude Code.

Have you tested these models in OpenCode, Cline or Claude Code?

No. We smoke-tested the three tools, which checks install and basic runs, not model quality. The model options here come from vendor docs and price pages, and nothing on this page is a measured ranking.

Sources

Page history

  • : First published from vendor price lists and docs read on this date. No model was benchmarked; our tool tests are separate and do not measure model quality.

Markdown version for agents: /guides/best-model-for-opencode-cline-claude-code.md