OpenCode Zen vs Go: Differences and How to Choose
As of 2026-10-07, OpenCode Zen is pay-as-you-go: you add a $20 balance and are charged at per-million-token rates. OpenCode Go is a subscription: Go at $10/month and Go Plus at $40/month, with limits set as monthly dollar amounts. Zen's price list includes Claude and GPT; Go's official model list is mostly open models and has no Claude. This page compares price, models, billing and limits line by line from the official docs, then covers how to choose and how to point OpenCode at your own key.
Updated 2026-10-08
Four key numbers
Go / Go Plus per month
The two monthly plans listed in the official docs. Token pricing is the same on both; what differs is each model's monthly limit.
First Zen top-up
The Zen page states a $20 balance plus a $1.23 card processing fee. Usage is then charged at per-million-token rates, and when the balance drops below $5, Zen reloads $20 automatically. You can change the amount or turn auto-reload off.
Go limits per 5 hours / week / month
Go limits are defined as monthly dollar amounts: a 5-hour window can use up to 20% of the monthly limit, a week up to 50%. Monthly limits vary by model: on Go, Kimi K3 gets $15 and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash gets $60.
Free-model quota
Per the official Go FAQ, free models include Big Pickle plus the promotional models of the moment, with a quota of 200 requests/day. Once your Go limit is used up, you can keep using the free models.
What Zen and Go are
As of 2026-10-07, Zen and Go are OpenCode's two paid options: Zen is pay-as-you-go, Go is a monthly subscription. The FAQ on the official Go page puts it this way: "No. Zen is pay-as-you-go, while Go costs $10/month." Zen is a set of models the OpenCode team has tested; the docs call it an AI gateway, and its price list spans Claude, GPT, Gemini and Grok as well as Qwen, DeepSeek, GLM, Kimi and others, charged per request at per-million-token rates. Go targets open coding models and comes in two tiers, Go ($10/month) and Go Plus ($40/month). In OpenCode both are just a provider, and the docs state they are completely optional: you can use OpenCode without either.
The official line (as of 2026-10-07)
On Zen pricing, the FAQ on the official Zen page says "Zen is not for profit. Zen passes through the costs from the model providers to you." The docs add that credit card fees are passed along at cost (4.4% + $0.30 per transaction) and nothing else is charged on top, which is OpenCode's own description. On Go, the docs state "Usage limits are defined as monthly dollar amounts," and token pricing is the same for Go and Go Plus. One more change: the changelog for OpenCode v1.18.22 (2026-08-24) says the outdated Go first-month discount messaging and pricing were removed; the official Go page now lists only the $10 and $40 monthly prices.
Timeline
OpenCode v1.18.19 ships; the changelog says web search is enabled when using the OpenCode Go provider.
OpenCode v1.18.22 ships; the changelog says the outdated Go first-month discount messaging and pricing were removed.
The official Zen and Go docs show this as their last-updated date; this page was checked against that version on 2026-10-07, when the Go docs listed Go at $10/month and Go Plus at $40/month.
Confirmed vs not listed by OpenCode
Confirmed (verbatim on the official pages)
All of the following can be checked word for word on OpenCode's official pages: Zen is pay-as-you-go, with prices listed per million tokens; the first top-up is $20 plus a $1.23 fee; below a $5 balance Zen reloads $20; you can set monthly usage limits for the whole workspace and for each member; you can bring your own OpenAI or Anthropic key, with tokens then billed directly by that company. Go is $10/month and Go Plus $40/month; limits are monthly dollar amounts, split 20% per 5 hours, 50% per week and 100% per month; only one member per workspace can subscribe to Go or Go Plus; after the limit you can keep using free models or turn on Use balance to draw on your Zen balance; a charge made within the last 14 days with no Go allowance used may qualify for a refund.
Not listed, or stated inconsistently
Four things not to treat as settled: first, launch dates for Go and Go Plus are not listed on the official pages as of 2026-10-07; second, Go's request counts per 5 hours, week and month are OpenCode's estimates from typical usage, and the docs say "actual usage varies" and that limits may change based on early feedback; third, neither the Zen nor the Go docs list context lengths per model; fourth, hosting regions are stated differently: the Zen product page says all Zen models are hosted in the US, while the Zen docs say the US and EU.
How to choose: Zen or Go
Pick Zen if you want Claude or GPT, or your usage varies
Zen is pay-as-you-go and draws your balance down by the tokens you actually use. Its price list includes Claude Opus 5.5 (input $4 / output $20), Claude Sonnet 5 ($2 / $10) and GPT 6 Sol ($2 / $10 up to 272K), none of which are on Go's model list. You can set monthly limits for the workspace and each member, and plug in an OpenAI or Anthropic key you already have. If you use little, or want to switch between frontier models, Zen is the better fit.
Pick Go if you run open models every day
Comparing the two official price lists, Kimi K3 and GLM-5.3 cost the same per token on Zen and Go, but the same money goes further on Go: converted from the official price list and looking at one model at a time, Go's $60 monthly limit for DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is 6x the $10 fee, and Kimi K3's $15 is 1.5x. Go Plus costs 4x Go, but limits do not grow 4x across the board: Kimi K3 goes from $15 to $60 (4x), DeepSeek V4.1 Flash from $60 to $120 (2x) and GLM-5.3 from $15 to $120 (8x).
Connecting Zen, Go or your own provider in OpenCode
First, Zen: sign in to OpenCode Zen, add billing details and copy your API key, then run /connect in OpenCode, choose OpenCode Zen and paste it; in your config, models take the opencode/ prefix, for example opencode/gpt-5.5. Second, Go: subscribe to Go or Go Plus in the OpenCode Console and copy the key, then choose OpenCode Go under /connect; models take the opencode-go/ prefix, for example opencode-go/kimi-k3. Third, another service: the docs state that the baseURL option changes the base URL of any provider and is meant for proxy services or custom endpoints; keys saved through /connect live in ~/.local/share/opencode/auth.json. For an OpenAI-compatible service not listed in /connect, pick Other to create a provider and use the @ai-sdk/openai-compatible package (for /v1/chat/completions), or @ai-sdk/openai for models that use /v1/responses. Fourth, QCode as an example (per the OpenCode page of the QCode docs): in ~/.config/opencode/opencode.json, set the baseURL of the anthropic provider to https://api.qcode.cc/claude/v1 and, for GPT, the openai provider to https://api.qcode.cc/openai; then run /connect, choose Anthropic or OpenAI, pick Manually enter API Key and paste your QCode key; write models as anthropic/claude-sonnet-5 or openai/gpt-6-sol.
On QCode
QCode is a multi-model API billed per token; it is not an official OpenCode service and does not resell OpenCode Go. Before using QCode in OpenCode, your key needs API direct access enabled: the QCode docs explain that direct API calls lack Claude Code's session mechanism, so token use runs higher, which is why this permission is off by default. Contact online support or email hi@qcode.cc to have it turned on for a purchased key. After that, set things up as in the fourth step above; one key calls claude-sonnet-5, claude-opus-5 and gpt-6-sol. Claude models only work on the Anthropic-protocol endpoint, and GPT uses the OpenAI protocol. Per-model prices are on /models.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between OpenCode Zen and OpenCode Go?
The main difference is billing: Zen is pay-as-you-go, Go is a monthly subscription. In the official words, "Zen is pay-as-you-go, while Go costs $10/month." As of 2026-10-07, Zen draws on a prepaid balance at per-million-token rates and its price list includes Claude and GPT; Go comes as Go at $10/month and Go Plus at $40/month, targets open coding models, and meters usage in monthly dollar amounts across 5-hour, weekly and monthly windows.
How much is OpenCode Go? Is there still a first-month discount?
As of 2026-10-07, the official docs list Go at $10/month and Go Plus at $40/month, with no first-month price. The OpenCode v1.18.22 changelog (2026-08-24) says the outdated Go first-month discount messaging and pricing were removed. You can cancel any time; per the FAQ on the official Go page, a charge made in the last 14 days with no Go allowance used in that billing period may qualify for a refund.
Does Go Plus give 4x the limits of Go?
Not for every model. Converted from the official price list: Go Plus costs $40, 4x Go, while monthly limits go from $15 to $60 for Kimi K3 (4x), from $60 to $120 for DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (2x) and from $15 to $120 for GLM-5.3 (8x). The official estimates for requests per 5 hours are 26,000 vs 52,000 on DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and 110 vs 440 on Kimi K3. Token prices are the same on both plans.
What happens when my Go limit runs out?
You can keep using the free models; the docs say "If you reach the usage limit, you can continue using the free models." If you also have money on your Zen balance, turn on Use balance in the console and Go falls back to that balance instead of blocking requests. Limits also roll: a 5-hour window can use up to 20% of the monthly limit, a week up to 50%.
Can I use Claude with Go?
Not as of 2026-10-07: the model list in the official Go docs has no Claude. It is mostly open models such as GLM, Kimi, DeepSeek, Qwen, MiniMax and MiMo, plus GPT 6 Luna and Grok. To use Claude through OpenCode's own offerings you need Zen (for example Claude Sonnet 5 at $2 input / $10 output per million tokens), or your own Anthropic key inside Zen.
Can I skip Zen and Go and use QCode in OpenCode instead?
Yes. In OpenCode, Zen and Go are optional providers, and the docs state you can change any provider's address with baseURL. Per the QCode docs, first have API direct access enabled on your key through support or hi@qcode.cc (it is off by default), then set the baseURL as in the fourth step above and paste your QCode key with /connect. Billing is per token, and per-model prices are on /models.
Sources
OpenCode's Zen and Go product pages and their FAQs (crawled 2026-10-07: top-up amount and fee, Go's two monthly prices, the official line on how Zen differs from Go, the free-model quota, refund terms); OpenCode's Zen, Go and Providers docs (crawled the same day, showing a last-updated date of 2026-10-06: the Zen price list, auto-reload and monthly limits, bring-your-own-key, Go's two prices, limit rules, per-model monthly limits and request estimates, the one-subscriber-per-workspace rule, and the provider baseURL and custom-provider setup); the OpenCode changelog for v1.18.19 and v1.18.22. For QCode: the QCode docs pages on OpenCode and on endpoints and API formats (crawled the same day).
Want to use your own key in OpenCode?
One QCode key calls claude-sonnet-5, claude-opus-5 and gpt-6-sol, billed per token; using it in OpenCode requires API direct access to be enabled first.
Related reading
OpenCode Go guide
How Go's limits, model list and setup work.
OpenCode complete guide
Features and installation of the open-source terminal AI coding assistant.
OpenCode Go Free vs paid
How the free models and the Go subscription differ on limits, and when to upgrade.
The figures and quotes on this page were checked on 2026-10-07 against OpenCode's official pages, which take precedence; upstream changes may happen without notice. Go's request counts are OpenCode's estimates from typical usage, not a measure of your own usage. QCode is not an official OpenCode service and is not affiliated with Anomaly or OpenCode. Model availability on QCode is whatever the /models page shows.