Claude API Cost Calculator
Calculate costs for Anthropic’s latest Claude models — Updated October 15, 2025
Cost Optimization
Cache reads at $0.30/1M tokens for repeated contexts
Half price for non-time-sensitive requests
Token Estimator
Model Comparison
| Model | Cost/Request | 1K Requests | 10K Requests | Best For |
|---|
Choosing Your Claude Model
Claude’s October 2025 lineup features a new efficiency champion. Claude Haiku 4.5 delivers Sonnet 4-level coding performance (73% SWE-bench) at one-third the cost and more than twice the speed – making it the optimal choice for high-volume production applications.
Released October 15, 2025. Default model for free users. Matches Sonnet 4 coding performance at one-third the cost with 4-5x faster speed. Ideal for real-time applications, chat assistants, pair programming, and high-volume sub-agent orchestration. Safest Claude model under ASL-2 classification.
World-leading coding model with sustained focus for complex tasks. Best overall value for production applications requiring extended reasoning and computer use capabilities.
Latest flagship with incremental improvements in coding reliability and safety (98.76% harmless response rate). Reserve for mission-critical workflows where maximum quality justifies 15x cost premium over Haiku 4.5.
Strong balance of performance and cost. Optional 1M context window (beta) at premium pricing. Suitable for general-purpose applications and high-volume workflows requiring extended context.
First hybrid model showing step-by-step reasoning. Ideal for educational applications and debugging complex problems where visible thought process adds value.
Exceptional value with same context window as premium models. Outperforms original Claude 3.5 Sonnet on SWE-bench (40.6%) while maintaining speed. Consider upgrading to Haiku 4.5 for significantly improved performance.
Maximum cost optimization for basic tasks. Processes 123 tokens/second output with 0.71s latency. Consider upgrading to Haiku 4.5 for dramatically improved capabilities at only 4x the cost.
Cost Optimization Features
Two optimization features enable up to 95% total cost reduction when combined effectively.
Prompt Caching
90% off readsCache system prompts, documentation, and examples that repeat across requests. Cache reads cost 0.1x base input price – $0.10 per 1M tokens for Haiku 4.5. Reduces latency by up to 85% for long prompts.
Batch Processing
50% offHalf price for requests without real-time requirements. Typical processing under 1 hour, maximum 24 hours. Does not count against standard API rate limits.
Haiku 4.5 vs Sonnet 4 Performance
Haiku 4.5 delivers near-frontier performance at exceptional cost efficiency. The model matches Sonnet 4’s coding capabilities while operating 4-5x faster and costing one-third as much.
| Metric | Haiku 4.5 | Sonnet 4 | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input Cost (1M tokens) | $1.00 | $3.00 | 3x cheaper |
| Output Cost (1M tokens) | $5.00 | $15.00 | 3x cheaper |
| SWE-bench Verified | 73% | 72.7% | Similar |
| Speed vs Sonnet 4.5 | 4-5x faster | 2x faster | 2x faster |
| Safety Classification | ASL-2 | ASL-3 | Safer |
Use case recommendation: Deploy Haiku 4.5 for high-volume production tasks, real-time applications, and sub-agent orchestration. Reserve Sonnet 4 for workflows requiring extended reasoning depth or when the additional 48K output tokens are necessary.
Cost savings example: Processing 10M tokens input and 5M tokens output monthly costs $10 + $25 = $35 with Haiku 4.5 versus $30 + $75 = $105 with Sonnet 4 – saving $70/month (67% reduction).
Token Costs and Usage Patterns
Claude’s tokenizer produces approximately 33% more tokens than simple word counts. Plan for 1.33 tokens per word in English text.
| Content Type | Tokens per 1K Words | Haiku 4.5 Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Natural language | 1,330 | $0.00133 input / $0.00665 output |
| Technical docs | 1,400 | $0.0014 input / $0.007 output |
| Source code | 1,500 | $0.0015 input / $0.0075 output |
Managing Output Costs
Output tokens cost 5x more than input tokens across all models. Request specific formats (JSON, bullet points) for concise responses. Set length constraints when detailed analysis isn’t required. Extended thinking adds reasoning tokens but often improves output quality, reducing revision cycles.
API Rate Limits and Scaling
Automatic tier progression based on deposit history and wait periods. Higher tiers unlock premium models and extended features.
| Tier | Monthly Limit | Deposit | Rate Limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | $100 | $5 | 20 RPM, 4K tokens/min |
| Tier 2 | $500 | $40 | 40 RPM, 8K tokens/min |
| Tier 4 | $5,000 | $400 | 200 RPM, 40K tokens/min |
Advancement timing: Tier progression typically occurs within 24-48 hours of meeting deposit and wait requirements.
Enterprise options: Team plans start at $25-30 per user monthly (5 user minimum). Enterprise contracts begin at $50,000 annually with custom limits, dedicated support, and priority access to new models.
Performance vs. Pricing
Claude 4 models lead software engineering benchmarks. Haiku 4.5’s breakthrough efficiency makes frontier-level performance accessible at unprecedented cost levels.
| Model | SWE-bench | Cost per 1M |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 73.0% | $1.00 |
| Claude Sonnet 4.5 | 77.2% | $3.00 |
| Claude Opus 4.1 | 74.5% | $15.00 |
| Claude Sonnet 4 | 72.7% | $3.00 |
| Gemini 2.5 Pro | 66.8% | $1.25 |
| GPT-5 | 58.7% | $2.50 |
Context advantage: All Claude models offer 200K token context windows, with Sonnet 4 supporting 1M tokens in beta. This eliminates document chunking required by smaller context models.
Value proposition: Haiku 4.5 delivers 73% SWE-bench performance at $1 per million input tokens – matching or exceeding competitors that cost 2.5x more while providing significantly smaller context windows.
Implementation Strategy
Deploy Claude efficiently through structured model selection and optimization.
Development Phase
Start with Claude Haiku 4.5 ($1/$5) for prototyping. Its Sonnet 4-level performance enables realistic testing at minimal cost before scaling.
- Set up API integration and error handling
- Optimize prompts for clarity and conciseness
- Establish token usage monitoring
- Test extended thinking for complex tasks
Production Deployment
Deploy Haiku 4.5 for high-volume tasks and Sonnet 4.5 for complex reasoning. Implement prompt caching and batch processing for optimal cost efficiency.
- Enable caching for repeated context
- Route appropriate workflows to batch processing
- Set up cost monitoring and alerts
- Deploy multi-agent orchestration with Haiku 4.5 sub-agents
- Evaluate computer use for automation workflows
Advanced Optimization
Fine-tune model selection per use case. Deploy Opus 4.1 selectively for tasks requiring maximum quality. Scale to higher usage tiers as needed.
- Analyze cost per feature and per user
- Implement dynamic model selection
- Optimize caching strategies
- Evaluate extended context premium pricing
- Scale to higher rate limit tiers
Cost Control Checklist
Additional Pricing Components
Beyond base token costs, several features incur additional charges.
Code Execution
$0.05 per session-hour with 5-minute minimum. Each organization receives 50 free hours daily.
Web Search
$10 per 1,000 searches. Does not include input/output token costs for processing search results.
Tool Use Overhead
System prompt tokens added per request: 313-346 tokens for basic tools, ~700 tokens for text editor, ~245 tokens for bash.
Extended Thinking
Charged as regular input tokens. Optional feature with fine-grained API control over reasoning duration. Can be toggled on/off per request. Haiku 4.5 performs significantly better with extended thinking enabled.
Official resources: Models overview • Pricing documentation • Haiku 4.5 announcement