Thoughts & Perspectives
Building in public
CodeRabbit Pricing (2026): Every Plan, the One-Repo Catch, and What a 10-Developer Team Pays
CodeRabbit costs $24, $48 or $72 per developer a month billed annually ($30 and $60 monthly on the first two), and it's free for public repositories. The detail that decides the plan for a small team isn't the price: Essentials works on one repository and allows five PR reviews per developer an hour, with $0.25 per file after that. Every plan, the 10-developer math, and how it compares with Claude Code Review and GitHub Copilot, from CodeRabbit's own pricing page as of October 2026.
DeepSeek vs ChatGPT (2026): DeepSeek Isn't the Cheap API Anymore, and the Data Question Still Decides
DeepSeek vs ChatGPT for a business in October 2026: both chat apps start free, but on the API OpenAI's GPT-6 Luna now costs less per token than DeepSeek Flash, even at DeepSeek's half-price off-peak rate. The worked monthly bill, the one case where DeepSeek still wins, and why DeepSeek's China data storage settles it for most US companies, from both vendors' own pages.
Claude Duet (2026): What It Does, Who Gets It, and the Team-Plan Catch for Owners
Claude Duet is Anthropic's new proactive agent app, opened October 21, 2026 as a waitlisted research preview for US Pro and Max subscribers. It sends a morning brief, chases unpaid invoices and preps payroll, and asks before it sends or pays. It is not on Team or Enterprise yet, which matters more to a business owner than anything in the launch post. What it costs, what it can't do, and what to connect first, from Anthropic's own pages as of October 2026.
AI for Logistics (2026): What a Small Carrier, Broker or 3PL Should Hand AI First, and What Never Goes In
How a small trucking company, freight brokerage or 3PL should start with AI: the email inbox first (rate confirmations, status updates, check-call notes), dispatch and safety decisions kept human, and driver records kept out entirely, with the federal rules that say why.
ChatGPT Slides (2026): Which Plans Get It, What It Costs, and the $20 Workaround
ChatGPT Slides launched October 16, 2026: ChatGPT drafts a deck in Space that your team edits together, then you present it or export it to PowerPoint, PDF or Google Slides. It is only on Pro, Business and Enterprise, not Plus or Free. What it does, what each plan costs a small team, the Windows 10 catch, and the cheaper routes to an AI-drafted deck, from OpenAI's own help pages as of October 2026.
Claude Research (2026): Which Plans Get It, How to Turn It On, and Why It Eats Your Limits
Claude Research is Anthropic's multi-search research mode. It is on Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise, not Free, it needs web search turned on, and it always runs on Opus 5.5 whatever model you picked, so it burns your usage limit faster than a normal chat. How to turn it on, what it can read, the mobile catch, how it compares to ChatGPT deep research, and when it is worth the limit, from Anthropic's own pages as of October 2026.
GitHub Copilot Pricing (2026): Free, Pro $10, Pro+ $39, Max $100, and What an AI Credit Buys
GitHub Copilot is free to start, then $10 a month for Pro, $39 for Pro+ and $100 for the new Max plan; Business is $19 a seat and Enterprise $39. Since June 2026 every plan is metered in GitHub AI Credits at a cent each, and the individual plans now include more credits than they cost. What each plan buys, what uses credits and what does not, and which plan a solo developer or a small team should pick, from GitHub's own pages as of October 2026.
ChatGPT Pricing (2026): Every Plan from Free to $500 Pro, and What Each One Runs Out Of
ChatGPT costs $0 on Free, $8 on Go, $20 on Plus, and $100, $200 or $500 a month on Pro. Business is $20 a seat billed yearly or $25 monthly with a 2-seat minimum, Premium seats are $100 or $125, and Enterprise is quoted by sales. What each plan actually runs out of, and what a solo owner, a 10-person team and a heavy user really pay, from OpenAI's own pages as of October 2026.
Riverside Pricing (2026): Pro $29, Grow $39, Webinar $99, and the Hours Cap That Picks Your Plan
Riverside is free to try, Pro is $29 a month ($24 billed yearly), Grow is $39 ($34) and Webinar is $99 ($79). Recording is unlimited on every paid plan; the cap that decides your plan is how many hours of separate audio and video tracks you can download, and Riverside's own page gives two different numbers for it. What a podcast hour and a webinar really cost on each plan, from riverside.com/pricing as of October 2026.
Runway Pricing (2026): Standard $15, Pro $35, Max $95, and What a Second of AI Video Costs
Runway is free for 125 one-time credits, Standard is $15 a month ($12 yearly) for 625 credits, Pro is $35 ($28) for 2,250, and Max is $95 ($76) for 9,500. Gen-4.5 burns 12 credits a second, so Standard buys 52 seconds of video a month. Cost per second on each plan, what a 30-second ad really costs once you count retakes, and the rollover trap, from Runway's own pricing page as of October 2026.
HeyGen Pricing (2026): Free, Creator $29, Pro $49, Business $149, and What a Minute of Video Costs
HeyGen is free for 3 one-minute videos a month, Creator is $29 ($24 a year) for 600 credits, Pro starts at $49 for 1,000, and Business is $149 plus $20 a seat for a shared 1,500. What one finished minute costs on each avatar model, how many minutes each plan really buys, and what a small team's training videos run, from HeyGen's own pages as of October 2026.
ChatGPT for Teachers (2026): Free Until June 2028. Who Qualifies and What a School Should Check First
ChatGPT for Teachers is OpenAI's free workspace for verified U.S. K-12 teachers and staff, free through June 2028. What it includes, who qualifies, what it's worth in paid seats, and the four things a school or district leader should settle before rolling it out, as of October 2026.
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