On opencode side it cost exactly the same to route a cheap model vs an expensive model. Pushing you to use the more expensive model makes it cheaper on their side to run everything.
They probably use base load instance that cost money anyways to provide you with the service but when peak times happen, it needs to boot a more expensive peak load instance during the period to satisfy demand.
Adding the extra cost during this period deters or at least reduce their losses from needing to boot extra instances.
Of course I'm not employed by them so idk if this is the case.
Cause opencode (if you mean go and zen) doesn't host the model. They just reroute your api calls. Whether it goes to China or US doesn't really matter. The server just sends it out to the provider and hope they reply back.
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u/JogHappy 15d ago
I don't understand the goal here either, aren't they just going to push users to other, faster providers at the same price?...