DeepSeek's API Price Cut Changed My Claude Code and ChatGPT Math (opens in new tab)

The DeepSeek API price cut made me rethink a habit I had quietly accepted: choosing an AI coding tool and then living with whatever model economics came with it. Claude Code is great when I want a strong terminal-native coding agent. ChatGPT and Codex are great when I want OpenAI's workflow and model stack. But when a provider like DeepSeek suddenly drops API pricing, the obvious question is not just "is this cheap?" It is: can I actually use the cheaper model from the tools I already use? Th...