Claude 4 Pricing: Complete Cost Guide (2026)

Claude 4 Pricing: Complete Cost Guide for 2026

Anthropic's Claude 4 family includes three models -- Opus, Sonnet, and Haiku -- each targeting different use cases and budgets. Understanding the pricing differences is essential for choosing the right model and keeping costs under control.

This guide breaks down the complete pricing for every Claude 4 model, compares costs with competitors, provides real-world usage cost examples, and shares tips for optimizing your spending.

Claude 4 Model Overview

Model	Best For	Context Window	Max Output
Claude Opus 4	Complex reasoning, research, agentic coding	200K tokens	32K tokens
Claude Sonnet 4	Balanced performance and cost	200K tokens	16K tokens
Claude Haiku 4	Fast, lightweight tasks	200K tokens	8K tokens

All three models share the same 200K token context window but differ significantly in capabilities, speed, and pricing.

API Pricing

Standard Pricing

Model	Input (per 1M tokens)	Output (per 1M tokens)	Prompt Caching Write	Prompt Caching Read
Claude Opus 4	$15.00	$75.00	$18.75	$1.50
Claude Sonnet 4	$3.00	$15.00	$3.75	$0.30
Claude Haiku 4	$0.80	$4.00	$1.00	$0.08

Batch API Pricing (50% Discount)

For non-time-sensitive workloads, the Batch API offers 50% off:

Model	Input (per 1M tokens)	Output (per 1M tokens)
Claude Opus 4	$7.50	$37.50
Claude Sonnet 4	$1.50	$7.50
Claude Haiku 4	$0.40	$2.00

Batch requests are processed within 24 hours and are ideal for data processing, content generation, and evaluation tasks.

Real-World Cost Examples

Example 1: Customer Support Chatbot

A chatbot that handles 10,000 conversations per day with an average of 500 input tokens and 300 output tokens per conversation.

Model	Daily Input Cost	Daily Output Cost	Daily Total	Monthly Total
Opus 4	$75.00	$225.00	$300.00	$9,000
Sonnet 4	$15.00	$45.00	$60.00	$1,800
Haiku 4	$4.00	$12.00	$16.00	$480

For customer support, Haiku 4 offers the best value at $480/month while still providing high-quality responses.

Example 2: Code Review Tool

A tool that reviews 500 pull requests per day, each with 2,000 input tokens (code + context) and 1,000 output tokens (review comments).

Model	Daily Input Cost	Daily Output Cost	Daily Total	Monthly Total
Opus 4	$15.00	$37.50	$52.50	$1,575
Sonnet 4	$3.00	$7.50	$10.50	$315
Haiku 4	$0.80	$2.00	$2.80	$84

Sonnet 4 is the sweet spot for code review -- high enough quality to catch subtle bugs at a reasonable price.

Example 3: Research and Analysis Agent

An agentic workflow that processes 100 research tasks per day, each using 10,000 input tokens and 5,000 output tokens with extended thinking.

Model	Daily Input Cost	Daily Output Cost	Daily Total	Monthly Total
Opus 4	$15.00	$37.50	$52.50	$1,575
Sonnet 4	$3.00	$7.50	$10.50	$315

For research requiring deep reasoning, Opus 4 is worth the premium. Sonnet 4 works for less complex analysis.

Consumer Product Pricing

Claude.ai Plans

Plan	Price	Models Included	Usage Limits
Free	$0/mo	Sonnet 4, Haiku 4	Limited daily messages
Pro	$20/mo	Opus 4, Sonnet 4, Haiku 4	5x more usage than free
Max (5x)	$100/mo	Opus 4, Sonnet 4, Haiku 4	20x more usage than free
Max (20x)	$200/mo	Opus 4, Sonnet 4, Haiku 4	80x more usage than free
Team	$25/user/mo	Opus 4, Sonnet 4, Haiku 4	Higher limits, admin controls
Enterprise	Custom	All models	Custom limits, SSO, audit logs

Claude Pro vs. API: Which Is Cheaper?

It depends on your usage volume:

• Casual use (under $20/month in tokens): Claude Pro is better value since you get web UI, Artifacts, Projects, and file uploads included.
• Heavy API use (over $20/month in tokens): The API is more cost-effective since you only pay for what you use.
• Batch processing: The API with Batch pricing is always cheaper for large-scale processing.

Claude 4 vs. Competitor Pricing

Premium Models

Model	Input (per 1M)	Output (per 1M)	Context	Strengths
Claude Opus 4	$15.00	$75.00	200K	Deep reasoning, agentic tasks
GPT-4o	$2.50	$10.00	128K	General purpose, multimodal
Gemini 2.5 Pro	$1.25	$10.00	1M	Long context, reasoning
Grok 3	$3.00	$15.00	131K	Reasoning, less content filtering

Mid-Tier Models

Model	Input (per 1M)	Output (per 1M)	Context	Strengths
Claude Sonnet 4	$3.00	$15.00	200K	Coding, balanced performance
GPT-4.1	$2.00	$8.00	1M	Instruction following, coding
Gemini 2.0 Flash	$0.10	$0.40	1M	Speed, cost efficiency
Grok 3 Mini	$0.30	$0.50	131K	Value, reasoning

Budget Models

Model	Input (per 1M)	Output (per 1M)	Context	Strengths
Claude Haiku 4	$0.80	$4.00	200K	Fast, capable for the price
GPT-4o Mini	$0.15	$0.60	128K	Cheapest major provider
GPT-4.1 Nano	$0.10	$0.40	1M	Extremely cheap
Gemini 2.0 Flash	$0.10	$0.40	1M	Cheapest with huge context

Claude models are generally priced at a premium compared to Google and OpenAI's budget options, but the quality, safety, and 200K context window justify the difference for many use cases.

Cost Optimization Tips

1. Use Prompt Caching

If you send the same system prompt or document repeatedly, prompt caching can reduce costs by up to 90%:

import anthropic

client = anthropic.Anthropic()

# First call: full price for input
response = client.messages.create(
    model="claude-sonnet-4-20250514",
    max_tokens=1024,
    system=[
        {
            "type": "text",
            "text": "Your long system prompt here (must be 1024+ tokens for caching)...",
            "cache_control": {"type": "ephemeral"}
        }
    ],
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Question 1"}]
)

# Subsequent calls: cached input at 10% of the cost
response = client.messages.create(
    model="claude-sonnet-4-20250514",
    max_tokens=1024,
    system=[
        {
            "type": "text",
            "text": "Same long system prompt...",
            "cache_control": {"type": "ephemeral"}
        }
    ],
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Question 2"}]
)

2. Choose the Right Model

Task	Recommended Model	Why
Customer support	Haiku 4	Fast, cheap, good enough quality
Code generation	Sonnet 4	Best code quality per dollar
Complex research	Opus 4	Needs deep reasoning
Data extraction	Haiku 4	Structured tasks, speed matters
Content writing	Sonnet 4	Good quality at reasonable cost
Agentic workflows	Sonnet 4 or Opus 4	Depends on task complexity

3. Use Batch API for Non-Urgent Tasks

The Batch API offers 50% off for tasks that can wait up to 24 hours:

# Create a batch
batch = client.batches.create(
    requests=[
        {
            "custom_id": "task-1",
            "params": {
                "model": "claude-sonnet-4-20250514",
                "max_tokens": 1024,
                "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Summarize this article..."}]
            }
        },
        # ... more requests
    ]
)

4. Minimize Token Usage

• Write concise system prompts
• Use max_tokens to cap response length
• Trim conversation history instead of sending full chat logs
• Use structured output to avoid verbose responses

5. Set Spending Limits

Configure usage limits in the Anthropic Console:

1. Go to console.anthropic.com.
2. Navigate to Settings > Limits.
3. Set a monthly spending limit to avoid surprises.

Token Estimation

Rough guidelines for estimating token counts:

Content	Approximate Tokens
1 word	~1.3 tokens
1 sentence	~15-25 tokens
1 paragraph	~60-100 tokens
1 page of text	~400-500 tokens
1 page of code	~300-400 tokens
A 10-page document	~4,000-5,000 tokens

Use the Anthropic tokenizer or API response headers to get exact counts.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use Claude 4 for free? Yes. Claude.ai has a free tier that includes Sonnet 4 and Haiku 4 with daily message limits. The API offers no free credits by default, but you can access Claude through free-tier offerings on platforms like Amazon Bedrock.

Is Claude Opus 4 worth the price? For tasks requiring deep reasoning, complex analysis, or agentic coding, Opus 4 delivers measurably better results than Sonnet 4. For simpler tasks, Sonnet 4 or Haiku 4 provide better value.

How does Claude 4 pricing compare to GPT-4o? Claude Sonnet 4 ($3/$15 per million tokens) is slightly more expensive than GPT-4o ($2.50/$10). Claude Opus 4 is significantly more expensive. Claude Haiku 4 is more expensive than GPT-4o Mini.

What is prompt caching and should I use it? Prompt caching lets you reuse cached input tokens at a 90% discount. Use it when you send the same system prompt or reference documents across multiple requests. It requires a minimum of 1,024 tokens to cache.

Can I switch between models dynamically? Yes. You can route simple queries to Haiku 4 and complex ones to Sonnet 4 or Opus 4 based on the task. This is a common cost optimization strategy.

Wrapping Up

Claude 4 pricing follows a clear tiered structure: Haiku for speed and cost, Sonnet for balanced performance, and Opus for maximum capability. The key to cost efficiency is matching the model to the task -- most workloads run perfectly on Sonnet 4, with Haiku handling simple tasks and Opus reserved for the hardest problems.

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