My Year of Switching AI Coding Tools 5 Times — And the $200-300 Monthly Dilemma

Codex → Cursor → Google Antigravity → Claude Code (Pro → Max). My real journey of switching AI coding tools five times in one year, and an honest confession about the $250-300 monthly cost. The tools changed, but the lesson remained one: powerful…

I've switched AI coding tools five times in the past year. Codex → ChatGPT (a step back) → Cursor → Google Antigravity → Claude Code (Pro → Max). Each time, I clicked "This is it" and hit the payment button, and each time, I learned something. Now, I'm spending ₩250,000-₩300,000 per month on AI, and I'm figuring out how to make that into a side income. This post is that honest journey — why certain tools didn't work, what the real turning points were, and why I keep paying for expensive tools despite knowing the cost.

I'm a solo developer in Korea building AI services. I only write about experiences based on personally paying for and using these tools. (My tool/price evaluations are subjective, based on my own usage environment.)## 1. One Year, Five Tool Switches — At a Glance

2. 2025.05 — Codex, The First ₩200,000 Failure

My journey with "Vibe Coding" started in May 2025, with a ₩200,000 payment for Codex. YouTube was flooded with videos claiming "AI will write all your code." But when I actually uploaded code and gave it tasks — for web development, it simply didn't generate what the prompts asked for. What was even more frustrating was that I couldn't even find where the errors were on each page, just going in circles. The conclusion was anticlimactic: "If I'm going to use Vibe Coding, I might as well just use ChatGPT directly." So, I went back to ChatGPT for a while. Although my first tool was a failure, I learned something: "Just let the AI figure it out" doesn't work.

3. 2025.12 — Cursor, The First "It Works" Moment

Six months later, I tried Cursor, and this time I felt a definite improvement. When developing at my company, it was quite good for implementing simpler things. It was the first time I thought, "AI coding is actually possible." However, there were clear limitations. When delving into more complex development, I had to ask multiple times, and it was only through me guiding the direction that we could solve the problems. As the tool got better, the realization that "I need to set the direction" became even clearer.## 4. 2026.03 — Google Antigravity, and the 'Double Billing' Trap In March 2026, I switched to Google Antigravity. I moved because its performance was clearly better than Cursor. However, when it came to agent-level development or game development, issues surfaced — I had to ask multiple times, but it couldn't properly remember past context, and the solutions weren't clean. (This was after I had paid ₩180,000.) Here's where I found something interesting. When I switched the model to Claude within Antigravity, it solved problems properly. But after a few uses, it quickly exceeded its limits. So, I connected my own Claude API and instructed it, "If Antigravity can't solve it, use my Claude API to get it solved." But then — it was a double-billing structure (Antigravity subscription + my API calls). I knew the key to performance was the model (Claude), but the method was inefficient.

5. 2026.04 — Claude Code, Through the Burnout Hell to Max

So, in April 2026, I switched directly to Claude Code. I decided it was better to use that Claude model without double-billing. Initially, I started with Claude Pro, but as expected, with its good performance, it depleted very quickly. This led to additional payments. It felt like I hadn't used it much, but I ended up spending an additional ₩200,000 that month. Eventually, I ended up subscribing to Claude Max and have been using it effectively ever since. The tool changed five times, but the lesson learned was the same as before — the core of solving problems wasn't the tool's name but "the power of the model × my ability to guide the direction."

6. The Reality of the Cost — ₩250,000-₩300,000 Per Month

Let me be honest and share the numbers. This is what I'm spending each month:

Claude Max ₩180,000 + GCE Cloud + Separate AI API Calls = approximately ₩250,000-₩300,000 per month. I have almost no income yet, but I have fixed expenses. That's why I'm constantly thinking and searching for how to turn this into a side income.

7. An Honest Conclusion — A ₩300,000 Question

Looking back, though the tools changed five times, the lesson converged into one:

The names of AI coding tools keep changing. But what solves the problem has always been the same — a powerful model × a person who guides the direction. AI is a tool to amplify skills, not replace foundation and judgment. And that amplification comes with a realistic price tag of ₩300,000 per month. This is my mindset: Do your best first (not keeping up is a bigger loss). Then, create a way to afford that cost. This blog, the Riel chatbot, and all the development logs I share — are essentially the process of finding an answer to that ₩300,000 question ("How can I afford to keep going?"). Can the cost of keeping up with AI be offset by the things created with AI? I'll continue to document that experiment.

💬 This is part of Riel — a full AI product I'm building solo, in public (failures and all). Read more build logs → · See the product →