Claude API Pricing (October 2026)

Start in the Claude Console, create an API key, then send a request to https://api.anthropic.com/v1/messages. Anthropic's official quickstart includes cURL, Python, and TypeScript examples. The API key has no subscription fee; the selected model, token counts, tools, and pricing modifiers determine the bill.

Use claude-opus-5-5 for the newest Opus tier, claude-opus-5 for the separately pinned prior Opus release, claude-sonnet-5 for Sonnet, and claude-fable-5-1 for Fable. Haiku's pinned ID is claude-haiku-4-5-20251001; claude-haiku-4-5 is its convenience alias. Anthropic says dateless IDs from the 4.6 generation onward are pinned snapshots, not pointers that silently move to a later model. The Models API returns the models available to your account.

Prompt caching separates writes from reads. A 5-minute cache write costs 1.25x the model's base input rate, a 1-hour write costs 2x, and each cache hit costs 0.1x. Opus 5.5 is the exception on reads: its $0.20/M rate is 0.05x its base input price; a 5-minute write costs $5/M and a 1-hour write costs $8/M. Cache the stable system prompt, tool definitions, or document prefix when the same content will be read again.

Batch processing halves input and output for asynchronous jobs. Anthropic states that the Batch discount stacks with prompt-cache pricing, so a batched Opus 5.5 cache hit costs $0.10/M and batched output costs $10/M. Fast mode does not work with Batch. The calculator above supports cache and Batch together; compare providers with the LLM API pricing calculator.

Claude Free, Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise are subscription products. They do not create a shared pool of standard Claude API tokens. API usage is metered through a developer account and billed from input, cached-input, output, and any paid server-side tool usage.

Claude Code can run under an eligible subscription for interactive use or with API credentials for usage-based automation. When Claude Code uses an API key, the selected model's token rates apply. Use the table and calculator for API-key workloads; use the consumer plan page for a seat or subscription decision.

The question underneath most Claude pricing searches is not the token rate but whether to pay $20 or $100 a month for a plan or pay per token. The honest answer has a missing number in it. Anthropic publishes the API rates on this page to the cent, and publishes Pro and Max usage as multiples of a base allowance that is not itself stated in tokens. So the comparison people make on Reddit, "36x cheaper on a subscription", cannot be checked either way from Anthropic's own pages.

What can be checked is the API side. At Sonnet 5's $2/$10, one million input tokens and 250,000 output tokens cost $4.50; at Fable 5.1's $10/$50, the same tokens cost $22.50. If your month looks like that and stays inside a plan's cap, the plan is the cheaper product. If you run agents that write far more than they read, the API bill grows with output and the plan's cap arrives first. Run your own month through the calculator above, and compare the plan side on Claude's plans and their limits.

Haiku 4.5 ($1/$5) is the low-cost tier for classification, extraction, routing, and short summaries. Sonnet 5 is the faster general-purpose tier at $2/$10, the launch rate Anthropic made permanent in August 2026. Opus 5.5 ($4/$20) is Anthropic's newest Opus option for long-running agentic coding and knowledge work. Fable 5.1 ($10/$50) is the highest-cost self-serve tier, with $0.25/M cache reads for context-heavy and long-running work.

The limit matters: the newest expensive model is not automatically the cheapest system. A routed workload can keep routine traffic on Haiku or Sonnet and escalate only failures to Opus or Fable. Fable loses when its quality gain does not offset a 2.5x input and output premium over Opus 5.5.

At the top tier, Fable 5.1 and GPT-6 Astra both list $10/$50 per million input/output tokens. Opus 5.5 at $4/$20 matches GPT-5.6 Sol's promotional rate, which OpenAI says runs through at least November 21, 2026. Sonnet 5 at $2/$10 matches GPT-6 Sol and costs less than GPT-5.6 Terra on output ($12), while Gemini 3.1 Pro lists at $2/$12 on prompts up to 200K tokens.

List price does not settle model quality, context behavior, or tokenization. Claude 4.7 and later use a tokenizer that Anthropic says produces about 30% more tokens for the same text, depending on the workload. Compare the full OpenAI and Gemini price tables, then rerun cost math with tokens measured from the model you plan to deploy.