# Claude Code pricing in 2026: every plan, the API and real costs

Claude Code has no price of its own: it comes with Claude plans or bills per token. Every option, what each really costs, and how to choose.

Published 2026-10-07 by Richard Kaminsky and Mitchell Lipyansky, the co-founders of Poly. Canonical: https://usepoly.co/claude-code-pricing
Poly is a multiplayer AI coding workspace: a shared room where your team works with one AI agent, together. Free to start: https://usepoly.co/

**Claude Code has no separate price: it comes with Claude's paid plans or bills per token through Anthropic's API. Claude Pro costs $20 a month, or $17 a month billed annually; Max costs $100 for five times Pro's usage or $200 for twenty times; Team seats cost $20 to $25 (standard) or $100 to $125 (premium); and Enterprise costs $20 a seat plus all usage at API rates. The free plan doesn't include Claude Code. Through the API, Sonnet 5.5 costs $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output, and Opus 5.5 $4 and $20; Anthropic puts the average Enterprise developer at about $13 per active day.**

## Key takeaways

- **Individuals:** Pro at $20 ($17 annually), Max 5x at $100, Max 20x at $200. Max is billed monthly only.
- **Teams:** Team seats from $20 to $125, for 2 to 150 people. Enterprise is $20 a seat plus every token at API rates, from 20 seats.
- **Pay as you go:** a Console API key or Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud or Microsoft Foundry, billed per token.
- **Beyond your limits:** usage credits at API rates, on any paid plan.
- **Discounts:** none for individual students. Anthropic sells an Education plan to universities and gives US K-12 teachers a free year.

*Ways to pay for Claude Code, from Anthropic's pricing page and help center, October 7, 2026.*

| Option | Price | What you get | Best for |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Free plan | $0 | No Claude Code | Chat only |
| Pro | $20 a month ($17 annually) | Claude Code with the baseline allowance | Trying it, regular use |
| Max 5x | $100 a month | 5 times Pro's per-session allowance | Daily use |
| Max 20x | $200 a month | 20 times Pro's per-session allowance | All-day use |
| Team | $20 to $125 a seat | 1.25 or 6.25 times Pro per member, admin tools | Teams of 2 to 150 |
| Enterprise | $20 a seat plus usage | Usage at API rates, security controls | Large organizations |
| API (Console) | Per token | Sonnet 5.5 $2/$10, Opus 5.5 $4/$20 per million | Light or automated use |

## How do Claude plans pay for Claude Code?

Each plan includes an allowance that resets every five hours plus a weekly limit, shared between chat and Claude Code ([Claude Code usage limits](/claude-code-usage-limits)):

- **Pro:** the baseline allowance.
- **Max 5x and 20x:** five or twenty times Pro's per-session allowance, priority access at busy times, and Fable models within the weekly limit ([Claude Max vs Pro](/claude-max-vs-pro)).
- **Team:** standard seats get 1.25 times Pro's per-session allowance, premium seats 6.25 times, each member separately.
- **Enterprise:** no included allowance; every token is billed at API rates ([Claude Team vs Enterprise](/claude-team-vs-enterprise)).

Past the limits, usage credits keep you going at API rates. Fast mode on Opus 5.5 runs only on credits, at $8 and $40 per million tokens.

## How much does Claude Code cost through the API?

With a Claude Console account, Claude Code bills per token at Anthropic's standard rates ([Anthropic](https://claude.com/pricing)):

- **Sonnet 5.5:** $2 input, $10 output per million tokens.
- **Opus 5.5:** $4 and $20, 20% less than Opus 5.
- **Haiku 5.5:** $0.10 and $0.50 for prompts up to 100K tokens, five times that above. It replaced Haiku 4.5 ($1 and $5) on October 7, 2026.
- **Fable 5.1:** $10 and $50.

Claude Code caches prompts automatically, and cache reads cost a fraction of input: $0.20 per million on Opus 5.5 and, since October 7, $0.10 on Sonnet 5.5. Console credits are prepaid in US dollars and expire after a year. The first time someone signs in through the Console, Claude Code creates a workspace with a key for each person, and it's the only workspace with per-user monthly spend limits ([Anthropic](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/manage-claude/workspaces)). If `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` is set, Claude Code uses it instead of your plan.

**Cloud providers:** on Amazon Bedrock and Google Cloud, pricing is set by the provider and billed to your cloud account; Microsoft Foundry bills at Anthropic's rates through the Azure Marketplace. Deployments that don't pin a model default to Opus.

## Plan or API: which is cheaper?

Anthropic says Claude Code averages about $13 per developer per active day on Enterprise, or $150 to $250 a month ([Anthropic](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/costs)). At that rate, pay-per-token passes Pro's $20 in about two active days a month and Max 5x's $100 in about eight. Light or occasional users can do well on the API; anyone using Claude Code most days pays less on a plan. In Claude Code, `/usage` shows what a session would cost at list prices.

## Is there a student or regional discount?

- **Students:** no individual discount; Anthropic says it offers no standard discounts on paid plans. Universities can buy the Education plan, which includes Claude Code, through Anthropic's sales team.
- **Teachers:** verified US K-12 teachers get Claude, including Claude Code, free for a year if they sign up by June 30, 2027 ([Anthropic](https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-for-teachers)).
- **Regions:** Pro is $20 a month in the US, and Anthropic charges in local currency where supported; it doesn't publish a list of local prices. Prices on its US pricing page exclude tax.

## What changed in 2026?

- **January 28:** Team seats were cut to $20 to $25 standard and $100 to $125 premium, with Claude Code included in every seat.
- **Early 2026:** Enterprise moved to a $20 seat plus all usage at API rates.
- **September 22:** Opus 5.5 launched at $4 and $20, 20% below Opus 5, and five-hour limits went up ([Anthropic](https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-opus-5-5)).
- **September 28:** Sonnet 5.5 stayed at $2 and $10.

## Which option should you choose?

- **Trying it, or occasional use:** Pro at $20, or the API.
- **Most days:** Pro, then Max 5x if you hit limits often.
- **All day on large codebases:** Max 20x.
- **A small team:** Team, with premium seats for heavy users.
- **Security and compliance needs, or more than 150 people:** Enterprise.

## Paying for a team's AI work

Claude plans are per person, and Anthropic's terms don't allow sharing an account. Poly (usepoly.co) is a shared room where a team works with one coding agent, Claude Code or Codex: everyone sees each step and any member can approve a change. Free to start; Pro is $20 and Max $50 a month for each person who runs the AI. [Pricing](/pricing)

## Common questions

**How much does Claude Code cost?**

It comes with Claude Pro at $20 a month ($17 billed annually), Max at $100 or $200, Team seats from $20 to $125, or Enterprise at $20 a seat plus usage. You can also pay per token with an API key.

**Is Claude Code included in Claude Pro?**

Yes. Pro includes Claude Code, sharing its five-hour and weekly usage limits with chat. The free plan does not include it.

**Is it cheaper to use Claude Code with an API key?**

For light use, often. Anthropic puts average Enterprise usage at about $13 per developer per active day, so a plan costs less once you use Claude Code more than a few days a month.

**Is there a student discount for Claude Code?**

No individual student discount. Universities can buy Anthropic's Education plan, and US K-12 teachers can get a free year of Claude, including Claude Code.

**What does Claude Code cost on Enterprise?**

$20 a seat a month, billed annually, plus all usage at API rates. Anthropic says the average is about $150 to $250 per developer a month.

More guides: https://usepoly.co/guides · Security: https://usepoly.co/security · Pricing: https://usepoly.co/pricing