Claude API Cost: Complete Pricing Calculator (2026)

The Claude API from Anthropic powers everything from chatbots and coding assistants to document analysis and content generation. Understanding the pricing structure is critical for budgeting, especially as token costs can add up quickly at scale.

This guide covers every Claude model's pricing, shows you how to calculate costs for your specific use case, and shares practical tips to reduce your API bill.

Claude API Pricing Table (2026)

Here is the complete pricing for all Claude models available through the Anthropic API as of early 2026.

Model	Input (per 1M tokens)	Output (per 1M tokens)	Context Window	Best For
Claude Opus 4	$15.00	$75.00	200K	Complex reasoning, research
Claude Sonnet 4.5	$3.00	$15.00	200K	Best all-around model
Claude Sonnet 4	$3.00	$15.00	200K	Coding, analysis
Claude Haiku 3.5	$0.80	$4.00	200K	Fast, lightweight tasks

Batch API Pricing (50% discount)

Anthropic offers a Batch API for non-time-sensitive workloads. Requests are processed within 24 hours at half the standard price.

Model	Batch Input (per 1M)	Batch Output (per 1M)	Savings vs. Standard
Claude Opus 4	$7.50	$37.50	50%
Claude Sonnet 4.5	$1.50	$7.50	50%
Claude Sonnet 4	$1.50	$7.50	50%
Claude Haiku 3.5	$0.40	$2.00	50%

Prompt Caching Pricing

When you use prompt caching (reusing the same system prompt or context across multiple requests), you get significant savings on cached input tokens.

Model	Cache Write (per 1M)	Cache Read (per 1M)	Savings on Reads
Claude Opus 4	$18.75	$1.50	90% vs standard input
Claude Sonnet 4.5	$3.75	$0.30	90% vs standard input
Claude Sonnet 4	$3.75	$0.30	90% vs standard input
Claude Haiku 3.5	$1.00	$0.08	90% vs standard input

How to Calculate Your Claude API Cost

Understanding tokens

Tokens are the units Claude uses to process text. As a rough guide:

1 token is approximately 4 characters or 0.75 words in English
1,000 tokens is approximately 750 words
A typical code file (200 lines) is about 2,000-3,000 tokens
A full-page document (~500 words) is about 670 tokens

Cost formula

Total Cost = (Input Tokens / 1,000,000 x Input Price) + (Output Tokens / 1,000,000 x Output Price)

Example calculations

Example 1: Chatbot conversation

Model: Claude Sonnet 4.5
Average conversation: 2,000 input tokens, 500 output tokens
Cost per conversation: (2,000/1M x $3) + (500/1M x $15) = $0.006 + $0.0075 = $0.0135
10,000 conversations/month: $135

Example 2: Code review tool

Model: Claude Sonnet 4.5
Per review: 15,000 input tokens (code context), 3,000 output tokens (review)
Cost per review: (15,000/1M x $3) + (3,000/1M x $15) = $0.045 + $0.045 = $0.09
500 reviews/month: $45

Example 3: Document summarization

Model: Claude Haiku 3.5
Per document: 50,000 input tokens (long document), 2,000 output tokens (summary)
Cost per summary: (50,000/1M x $0.80) + (2,000/1M x $4) = $0.04 + $0.008 = $0.048
5,000 documents/month: $240

Example 4: Batch processing research papers

Model: Claude Sonnet 4.5 (Batch API)
Per paper: 80,000 input tokens, 5,000 output tokens
Cost per paper: (80,000/1M x $1.50) + (5,000/1M x $7.50) = $0.12 + $0.0375 = $0.1575
1,000 papers: $157.50 (vs. $315 at standard pricing)

Quick Cost Reference Table

For fast estimates, use this table showing cost per 1,000 API calls at common token volumes.

Tokens per Call	Claude Opus 4	Claude Sonnet 4.5	Claude Haiku 3.5
500 in / 100 out	$15.00	$3.00	$0.80
2K in / 500 out	$67.50	$13.50	$3.60
5K in / 1K out	$150.00	$30.00	$8.00
10K in / 3K out	$375.00	$75.00	$20.00
50K in / 5K out	$1,125.00	$225.00	$60.00

Claude API vs. Competitors: Cost Comparison

Model	Input (per 1M)	Output (per 1M)	Quality Tier
Claude Opus 4	$15.00	$75.00	Premium
GPT-4o	$2.50	$10.00	Premium
Gemini 2.5 Pro	$1.25	$10.00	Premium
Claude Sonnet 4.5	$3.00	$15.00	High
GPT-4o-mini	$0.15	$0.60	Mid
Claude Haiku 3.5	$0.80	$4.00	Mid
Gemini 2.5 Flash	$0.15	$0.60	Mid
Llama 3.3 70B (Groq)	$0.59	$0.79	Mid
DeepSeek V3	$0.27	$1.10	Mid

Key takeaways:

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is moderately priced for its quality tier -- more expensive than GPT-4o but competitive in output quality.
Claude Haiku 3.5 is the budget option in the Claude family, but GPT-4o-mini and Gemini Flash are significantly cheaper for similar-tier tasks.
Claude Opus 4 is the most expensive option by a wide margin. Use it only for tasks that truly require its reasoning capabilities.

7 Tips to Reduce Claude API Costs

1. Use prompt caching for repeated context

If you send the same system prompt or reference documents with every request, enable prompt caching. The first request pays a 25% premium for cache writes, but subsequent requests read cached tokens at 90% off.

import anthropic

client = anthropic.Anthropic()

# First request: writes to cache
response = client.messages.create(
    model="claude-sonnet-4-5-20250514",
    max_tokens=1024,
    system=[
        {
            "type": "text",
            "text": "You are a senior code reviewer. Here are the project coding standards: [... long document ...]",
            "cache_control": {"type": "ephemeral"}
        }
    ],
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Review this pull request: ..."}]
)

# Subsequent requests: reads from cache at 90% discount

2. Use the Batch API for non-urgent work

If your workload can tolerate up to 24 hours of processing time, the Batch API cuts costs in half.

import anthropic

client = anthropic.Anthropic()

# Create a batch request
batch = client.batches.create(
    requests=[
        {
            "custom_id": "doc-001",
            "params": {
                "model": "claude-sonnet-4-5-20250514",
                "max_tokens": 1024,
                "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Summarize this document: ..."}]
            }
        },
        {
            "custom_id": "doc-002",
            "params": {
                "model": "claude-sonnet-4-5-20250514",
                "max_tokens": 1024,
                "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Summarize this document: ..."}]
            }
        }
    ]
)

print(f"Batch ID: {batch.id}")

3. Choose the right model for the task

Do not use Opus 4 for everything. Route tasks to the appropriate model:

Task	Recommended Model	Why
Simple Q&A, formatting	Haiku 3.5	Cheapest, fast enough
Code generation, analysis	Sonnet 4.5	Best quality/cost ratio
Complex reasoning, research	Opus 4	Only model capable enough

4. Set max_tokens appropriately

Do not set max_tokens to 4096 for every request. If you expect a 200-token response, set it to 300. While you are only billed for actual output tokens, a lower max_tokens can help the model be more concise.

5. Minimize input tokens

Trim unnecessary whitespace from code.
Send only relevant files, not your entire codebase.
Summarize long documents before sending them as context.
Use structured formats (JSON, bullet points) instead of verbose prose.

6. Implement response caching

Cache Claude's responses for identical or similar queries in your application:

import hashlib
import json
import redis

redis_client = redis.Redis()

def query_claude_cached(prompt, model="claude-sonnet-4-5-20250514"):
    # Create a cache key from the prompt
    cache_key = f"claude:{hashlib.sha256(prompt.encode()).hexdigest()}"

    # Check cache first
    cached = redis_client.get(cache_key)
    if cached:
        return json.loads(cached)

    # Call Claude API
    response = client.messages.create(
        model=model,
        max_tokens=1024,
        messages=[{"role": "user", "content": prompt}]
    )

    result = response.content[0].text

    # Cache for 1 hour
    redis_client.setex(cache_key, 3600, json.dumps(result))

    return result

7. Monitor and set alerts

Use the Anthropic usage dashboard and set up spending alerts:

Go to console.anthropic.com/settings/billing.
Set a monthly spending limit.
Configure email alerts at various thresholds (50%, 75%, 90%).

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a free tier for the Claude API? Anthropic provides $5 in free credits for new accounts, valid for 30 days. After that, you pay per token.

How does Claude API pricing compare to using claude.ai Pro? The Pro subscription ($20/month) gives you approximately 100+ messages per day. For moderate use (under ~1,500 messages/month), Pro is often cheaper than the API. For low-volume or high-volume use, the API can be more cost-effective.

Can I set a hard spending limit? Yes. In the Anthropic console, you can set a monthly spending cap. Once reached, API requests will return errors rather than incurring additional charges.

Does extended thinking cost extra? Extended thinking tokens are billed as output tokens. Since extended thinking can generate many reasoning tokens, it can significantly increase costs. Monitor usage carefully when enabling this feature.

Are there volume discounts? The Batch API provides a flat 50% discount. For very high volume (millions of dollars per month), contact Anthropic's sales team for custom pricing.

Wrapping Up

Claude API costs range from $0.80/1M tokens for Haiku 3.5 input to $75/1M for Opus 4 output. For most applications, Claude Sonnet 4.5 at $3/$15 per million tokens offers the best balance of quality and cost. Use prompt caching, the Batch API, and smart model routing to reduce your bill by 50-90%.

If you need affordable AI media generation APIs alongside Claude for text, try Hypereal AI free -- 35 credits, no credit card required. It offers image, video, and avatar generation at competitive per-use pricing.