I've been looking to get a Pro plan for Claude for a while now, but haven't committed since my experience with Claude has been declining, even on the free plan. My tokens just start disappearing as soon as you get Claude to do something remotely intensive. My main use for Claude, or just AI in general is mostly coding with using it to studying on the side (though the free plan for any AI is enough for that).
I've also tried running CC with local models but it just destroys my laptop for mediocre results at best. So I'm not sure whether I should get the Pro plan, especially since Codex has become a lot more powerful with the release of GPT 5.5. I love the Claude ecosystem, but I don't have a ton of cash just lying around, so I want to make an informed decision for the best value.
Another thing is I recently asked my software engineer friend regarding this and he said to get Cursor instead. I know Cursor was cracked a few years back, but I'm not sure how it's held up after time.
Any advice would be appreciated.
P.S. This is all regarding the $20 plans for the respective AIs (Claude Pro, Chatgpt Plus, Cursor Pro)