[Filligree]

The standard way to use Claude Code is with a constant-cost subscription; one of their standard website accounts. It’s rate-limited but still generous.

You can also use API tokens, yes, but that’s 5-10x more expensive. So I wouldn’t.

[_fat_santa]

> You can also use API tokens, yes, but that’s 5-10x more expensive. So I wouldn’t.

100% agree as someone that uses API tokens. I use it via API tokens only because my work gave me some Anthropic keys and the directive "burn the tokens!" (they want to see us using it and don't give a crap about costs).

[freedomben]

This is going to depend on what you're doing with it. I use Claude code for some stuff multiple times a day, and it is an unusual for a session to cost me $0.05. Even the most expensive thing I did ended up costing like $6, and that was a big and intensive workflow.

The size of the code base you are working in also matters. On an old, large code base, the cost does go up, though still not real high. On a new or relatively small code base, it is not unusual for my requests to cost a tenth of a cent. For what I am doing, paying with an API key is much cheaper than a subscription would be

[sarchertech]

If API tokens are 10x more expensive doesn’t that imply that the constant-cost subscription is massively subsidized?

[jampekka]

Relies on many of the subscribers underusing their quota?

[a_bonobo]

yes, definitely. I've seen comments from people burning through $100s of tokens per day for a $200 per month subscription. Anthropic has just been cracking down and restricted token limits for restrictions, expect more to come, it's just not sustainable

https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/17/anthropic-tightens-usage-l...

[blitzar]

Or the markup they apply to the price per token pricing is extremely large.

[Filligree]

Yeah, it probably is. I'll use it while it's there.