Skip to content
Danube Labs

Insights

Notes from the work.

Practical guides on AI coding agents, LLM costs, websites and custom software: what we built, what it cost and what we would do differently.

9 min read

Claude Max Weekly Limit: Our Usage Fell by Half in September 2026

Claude Max weekly limit, measured: our Max 5x account, capped every week, used 48% to 82% less after Opus 5.5 arrived. One account only. See the data, the method and what Anthropic has published.

  • Claude Code
  • Subscriptions
  • Cost optimisation
  • 8 min read

    EU AI Act Small Business Guide: What to Do in 2026

    The EU AI Act small business rules in 2026: which dates moved after the omnibus, what tool users must do, when to label AI content, and the fines as written.

    • Regulation
    • Small business
    • AI
  • 6 min read

    Best AI Coding Plan for Your Usage: Monthly Costs (2026)

    The best AI coding plan depends on your monthly calls. Six usage profiles priced at API list prices and matched to published plan allowances, with the arithmetic and when to switch.

    • AI
    • Cost optimisation
    • Subscriptions
  • 7 min read

    OpenRouter vs Direct API: When an AI Router Is Worth It

    A router gives you one key, one bill and many models. A direct API gives you one contract and fewer parties. See how OpenRouter, OpenCode, Command Code and a local gateway differ, checked 4 October 2026.

    • AI
    • LLM
    • Developer tools
  • 7 min read

    e-Factura Romania: Who Must Use It, Deadlines and Fines

    e-Factura Romania explained: who must send invoices through RO e-Factura, the 5 working-day deadline, how SPV works, common errors and the fines in the law. Checked on 4 October 2026.

    • Regulation
    • Small business
    • Guides
  • 6 min read

    OpenCode Go Review: Plans, Limits, Command Code, Charm Hyper

    OpenCode Go costs $10 a month, Command Code starts at $1 with a $10 GOAT plan, and Charm Hyper (called HyperCharm in some tools) sells credits. Prices, limits and caveats as of 4 October 2026.

    • AI
    • Developer tools
    • Subscriptions
  • 7 min read

    Best Open Weight Coding Models in October 2026

    The best open weight coding models on 4 October 2026, ranked with dated scores, licences, hardware needs and Claude Code setup for local and hosted use.

    • Open models
    • Developer tools
    • Open source
  • 7 min read

    AI Adoption in Romania: Where SMEs Stand in 2026

    AI adoption in Romania: 5.21% of enterprises used AI in 2025, the lowest share in the EU. Eurostat data, first use cases, costs, GDPR, the AI Act and verified funding.

    • AI
    • Small business
    • Automation
  • 7 min read

    Does ChatGPT Use My Data for Training? Privacy Settings Guide

    On personal plans, ChatGPT may train on your chats unless you opt out. Compare ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Copilot and others: training defaults, opt-outs, temporary chats and retention, checked 4 October 2026.

    • AI
    • Security
    • Guides
  • 8 min read

    Cybersecurity for Small Business: The 10 Steps That Matter

    Cybersecurity for small business starts with ten habits: unique passwords, 2FA, payment checks, updates, tested 3-2-1 backups and an incident plan. Checklist and Romanian contacts included.

    • Security
    • Small business
    • Guides
  • 7 min read

    AI Agents ROI: A Practical Formula for Your Business

    AI agents ROI comes down to time saved times loaded cost, minus tokens, review and maintenance. A formula, a worked example, a pilot method and when not to automate.

    • AI
    • Automation
    • Business
  • 7 min read

    AI for Students: How to Study With AI Without Cheating

    AI for students works as a tutor, not a ghostwriter. See what ASE and other Romanian universities allow, how to self-test, check sources, cite AI use and prompt it like a tutor.

    • AI
    • Productivity
    • Guides
  • 7 min read

    Website Cost in Romania in 2026: Real Price Ranges

    Website cost in Romania in 2026 runs from about €200 for a template to €10,000 for an online shop. See the ranges by site type and what drives the price.

    • Websites
    • Pricing
    • Small business
  • 6 min read

    Claude Code Free: What Is Actually Free and What Is Not

    Claude Code is free to install, but the model is what costs money. These are the real free routes, local models, free tiers and gateways, and what you give up.

    • Claude Code
    • Cost optimisation
    • Open source
  • 9 min read

    Prompt Caching Explained for Claude Code and Long AI Sessions

    Prompt caching lets an LLM reuse the part of your prompt that has not changed and bill it at a fraction of the input price. Here is how the cache, its 5-minute and 1-hour TTL, and keep-alive pings work.

    • AI
    • Claude Code
    • Cost optimisation
  • 7 min read

    Claude Subscription vs API for Coding: How to Choose

    Claude subscription vs API comes down to how steady your usage is. See how each is billed, how the cache TTL differs, what drives Claude Code cost and how to track it.

    • Claude Code
    • Pricing
    • Cost optimisation
  • 7 min read

    Local Whisper Transcription on Your Own PC, Step by Step

    Local Whisper transcription keeps your audio on your own computer. Convert to 16 kHz mono with FFmpeg, run faster-whisper on a GPU or CPU, and export TXT, SRT or VTT, with speaker labels from pyannote.

    • AI
    • Speech to text
    • Open source
  • 8 min read

    Claude Code Session History, Transcripts and How to Keep Them

    Claude Code keeps session history as JSONL files and deletes them after 30 days by default. Learn where they live, how to change cleanupPeriodDays, fix a broken resume and archive everything.

    • Claude Code
    • Developer tools
    • Open source
  • 8 min read

    Translate Word Document with AI and Keep Formatting

    To translate a Word document with AI and keep the formatting, extract the text run by run, translate it in chunks with context, and write it back into the same runs. PDFs need extraction or OCR first.

    • AI
    • Translation
    • Automation
  • 7 min read

    Manage Multiple Vercel Accounts Without Logging Out

    Give every Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare, Supabase or Gmail account its own isolated browser session and you can switch without logging out. Here are the options, the security trade-offs and the rules to check.

    • Developer tools
    • Productivity
    • Security
  • 7 min read

    Train YOLOv8 on Custom Dataset With Real Metrics and Lessons

    A step-by-step YOLOv8 custom training walkthrough with real results: 0.84 precision, 0.50 recall and 0.59 mAP@50. Learn what low recall means and why more varied data helped more than a bigger model.

    • Computer vision
    • Machine learning
    • AI
  • 2 min read

    A simple way to decide what to automate first

    Small teams do not lack automation ideas, they lack a way to rank them. A one-page scoring method we use in consulting engagements.

    • Automation
    • Consulting
    • Operations
  • 2 min read

    How we cut LLM costs by 99% without hurting quality

    Most AI features are expensive because nobody measured them. Here is the routing, caching and prompt work that took one production workload from thousands to tens of dollars a month.

    • AI
    • LLM
    • Cost optimisation