How much does Claude Code cost?
Claude Code is included in Claude Pro at $20 a month, Max 5x at $100 and Max 20x at $200, each with 5-hour and weekly usage limits. On the API you pay per token instead: a median coding-agent day costs $3.53 on Sonnet 5.5 or $7.06 on Opus 5.5 at list prices.
Every plan that includes Claude Code
| Plan | Price | Claude Code usage |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Not included |
| Pro | $20/mo, $17 yearly | 5-hour and weekly limits, shared with chat |
| Max 5x | $100/mo | 5x Pro per session |
| Max 20x | $200/mo | 20x Pro per session |
| Team Standard | $25/seat, $20 yearly | More usage than Pro |
| Team Premium | $125/seat, $100 yearly | 5x a Standard seat |
| Enterprise | $20/seat + usage | Usage at API rates |
Yearly = per month, billed annually. Max and Team seats also have weekly limits. Anthropic states limits as multiples of Pro, never as tokens or prompts. Sources: claude.com/pricing and Anthropic's Help Center, October 13, 2026.
API prices per token
| Model | Input | Cache read | Output |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opus 5.5 | $4 | $0.20 | $20 |
| Sonnet 5.5 | $2 | $0.10 | $10 |
| Haiku 5.5, short prompts | $0.10 | $0.01 | $0.50 |
| Haiku 5.5, long prompts | $0.50 | $0.05 | $2.50 |
Per million tokens, platform.claude.com, October 13, 2026. Haiku 5.5 charges the long-prompt rates on every token of a request over 100K input tokens, cache reads included. Opus 5.5 and Sonnet 5.5 keep one rate across their 1M context.
API cost per day on real coding-agent traffic
We priced every coding-agent request on the Standard Compute gateway from September 13 to October 12, 2026 at Anthropic's list prices. The median active day had 94 requests and 8.5M tokens; a busy day, the 90th percentile, had 491 requests and 86.7M tokens. Cache reads made up 87% of input, which keeps the bill far below what the token count suggests.
| Per active day | Median | Busy |
|---|---|---|
| Sonnet 5.5 | $3.53 | $28.97 |
| Opus 5.5 | $7.06 | $57.94 |
297 developer-days from OpenCode, Kilo, Roo and other agents; Claude Code itself was not in the sample. Anthropic reports about $13 per developer per active day, under $30 for 90% of users (code.claude.com/docs/en/costs).
A month on the API next to the plans
How the plan limits work
- Pro and Max have a session limit that resets every five hours and a weekly limit. Claude chat and Claude Code draw on the same allowance.
- Max multiplies Pro's per-session allowance by 5 or 20, and adds a separate weekly limit for Anthropic's top Fable models.
- At the limit you can wait for the reset, upgrade, or turn on usage credits, which bill at standard API rates. The monthly API credits bundled with Max and Team cannot be spent in Claude Code.
- The prompt cache lasts an hour on a subscription and five minutes by default on usage credits or an API key. Returning after a longer break reprocesses the whole conversation.
Which option costs least for you
- Up to about five median days a month: the API. Pro's $20 equals 5.7 median Sonnet 5.5 days.
- Regular use that fits the windows: Pro.
- Daily heavy use or parallel sessions: Max. Max 5x equals 3.5 busy Sonnet 5.5 days and Max 20x about 7, so a heavy user who stays within the limits pays far less than on the API.
- A team that wants a fixed price per person: Team seats. Enterprise bills usage at API rates on top of the seat.
The catch
Anthropic publishes plan limits only as multiples of Pro, so nobody outside Anthropic can say how many median days fit into a Pro week. Our day costs come from other coding agents priced at list rates. After a week of real use, Claude Code's own /usage screen is the better guide to your bill.
Where Standard Compute fits
Standard Compute serves the Anthropic Messages API (/v1/messages): set ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL to https://api.stdcmpt.com and Claude Code runs on a Standard Compute key. Plans start at $19/month with a fixed monthly budget, and requests stop when it is used up, with no overage charges. It does not include a Claude Pro or Max subscription.
FAQ
Is Claude Code free?
No. Anthropic's Free plan does not include Claude Code. The cheapest ways in are Claude Pro or paying per token on the API with no subscription.
Is Claude Code included in Claude Pro?
Yes. Pro includes Claude Code, and your Claude chat use counts against the same 5-hour and weekly limits.
How much does Claude Code cost per month on the API?
About $71 on Sonnet 5.5 for twenty median coding-agent days at list prices, and roughly eight times that for twenty busy days. Anthropic puts its enterprise average at $150 to $250 per developer per month.
Is Claude Max cheaper than the API?
For heavy users, yes, as long as the work fits Max's limits. For light users the API costs less, because a median Sonnet 5.5 day is a few dollars.
What happens when I hit the Claude Code usage limit?
Claude Code pauses and shows when the window resets. You can wait, upgrade from Pro to Max or from Max 5x to 20x, turn on usage credits, or switch to an API key from the Claude Console.
Does Opus 5.5 cost more than Sonnet 5.5 in Claude Code?
Twice as much per token on the API, so the same day costs double. Anthropic's cost guide recommends Sonnet for most coding and Opus for complex architecture and multi-step reasoning.