Claude API Cost Calculator
Calculate costs for Anthropic’s latest Claude models – Updated November 24, 2025
Cost Optimization
Cache reads at $0.50/1M 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 November 2025 lineup features a new flagship. Claude Opus 4.5, released today, delivers an 80.9% SWE-bench score at $5/$25 per million tokens – a 66% price reduction from previous Opus models while achieving state-of-the-art coding performance.
Released November 24, 2025. Best coding model in the world with state-of-the-art performance on software engineering benchmarks. Outperformed every human candidate on Anthropic’s internal engineering exam within a two-hour window. New effort parameter lets you balance performance vs. cost – at medium effort, matches Sonnet 4.5 using 76% fewer tokens.
Released September 2025. Excellent coding model with sustained focus for complex tasks. Best value for production applications when Opus 4.5’s pricing premium isn’t justified. Extended thinking capabilities and computer use support.
Released October 2025. Near-frontier performance at exceptional cost efficiency. Matches Sonnet 4’s coding capabilities at one-third the cost and more than twice the speed. Default model for free users. Ideal for real-time applications, chat assistants, pair programming, and high-volume sub-agent orchestration.
Previous flagship models. With Opus 4.5 offering better performance at 66% lower cost, these are now primarily for legacy workflows that specifically require Opus 4.1 or Opus 4 model behavior. Most users should migrate to Opus 4.5.
Strong balance of performance and cost. Optional 1M context window (beta) at premium pricing. Suitable for general-purpose applications when Sonnet 4.5 isn’t needed.
First hybrid model showing step-by-step reasoning. Ideal for educational applications and debugging complex problems where visible thought process adds value.
Legacy Haiku models for maximum cost optimization. Haiku 3 at $0.25/$1.25 offers the absolute lowest API costs. Consider upgrading to Haiku 4.5 for dramatically improved capabilities at modest additional cost.
Cost Optimization Features
Two optimization features enable up to 95% total cost reduction when combined effectively.
Prompt Caching
90% off reads
Cache system prompts, documentation, and examples that repeat across requests. Cache reads cost 0.1x base input price – $0.50 per 1M tokens for Opus 4.5. Reduces latency by up to 85% for long prompts.
Batch Processing
50% off
Half price for requests without real-time requirements. Typical processing under 1 hour, maximum 24 hours. Does not count against standard API rate limits.
Opus 4.5 vs Previous Opus Models
Opus 4.5 delivers better performance at dramatically lower cost. The model achieves state-of-the-art results while using fewer tokens to solve the same problems.
| Metric | Opus 4.5 | Opus 4.1 | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input Cost (1M tokens) | $5.00 | $15.00 | 66% cheaper |
| Output Cost (1M tokens) | $25.00 | $75.00 | 66% cheaper |
| SWE-bench Verified | 80.9% | 74.5% | +6.4 points |
| Token Efficiency | Up to 65% fewer | Baseline | Significant |
| Effort Parameter | Yes (adjustable) | No | New feature |
Migration recommendation: Opus 4.5 is a direct upgrade path for existing Opus 4.1 and Opus 4 users. Better performance at lower cost with no breaking changes.
Cost savings example: Processing 10M input tokens and 5M output tokens monthly costs $50 + $125 = $175 with Opus 4.5 versus $150 + $375 = $525 with Opus 4.1 – saving $350/month (67% reduction).
Effort Parameter (Opus 4.5)
Opus 4.5 introduces fine-grained control over reasoning depth. The effort parameter lets you balance performance versus cost on each API request.
Fastest responses with minimal reasoning depth. Best for simple tasks, quick classification, or high-volume applications where speed matters more than thorough analysis.
Matches Sonnet 4.5’s best SWE-bench score while using 76% fewer output tokens. Optimal balance for most production coding tasks.
Exceeds Sonnet 4.5 by 4.3 percentage points on SWE-bench while still using 48% fewer tokens. Use for mission-critical code, complex debugging, and tasks requiring maximum accuracy.
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 | Opus 4.5 Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Natural language | 1,330 | $0.00665 input / $0.03325 output |
| Technical docs | 1,400 | $0.007 input / $0.035 output |
| Source code | 1,500 | $0.0075 input / $0.0375 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. Use the effort parameter on Opus 4.5 to control reasoning depth and token usage.
API Rate Limits and Scaling
Automatic tier progression based on deposit history and wait periods. Higher tiers unlock increased limits.
| 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 |
Opus 4.5 limits: Model-specific caps have been removed for Claude and Claude Code users. Max and Team Premium users receive higher overall quotas.
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.
Performance vs. Pricing
Claude Opus 4.5 leads software engineering benchmarks with an 80.9% SWE-bench score – narrowly edging out recent releases from Google and OpenAI.
| Model | SWE-bench | Input Cost (1M) |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Opus 4.5 | 80.9% | $5.00 |
| Claude Sonnet 4.5 | 77.2% | $3.00 |
| Claude Opus 4.1 | 74.5% | $15.00 |
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 73.0% | $1.00 |
| Claude Sonnet 4 | 72.7% | $3.00 |
| Gemini 3 Pro | ~78% | $2.00 |
| GPT-5.1 | ~76% | $1.25 |
November AI Rush: All three major labs (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google) released flagship coding models between November 18-24, 2025. The margin between top performers is less than 5 percentage points.
Context advantage: All Claude models offer 200K token context windows. This eliminates document chunking required by smaller context models.
Implementation Strategy
Deploy Claude efficiently through structured model selection and optimization.
Development Phase
Start with Claude Haiku 4.5 ($1/$5) for prototyping. Its near-frontier 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 Opus 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
- Use effort parameter on Opus 4.5 to balance performance/cost
- Deploy multi-agent orchestration with Haiku 4.5 sub-agents
Advanced Optimization
Fine-tune model selection per use case. Let Opus 4.5 orchestrate teams of Haiku 4.5 sub-agents for complex multi-step workflows.
- Analyze cost per feature and per user
- Implement dynamic model selection
- Optimize caching strategies
- Use context compaction for long conversations
- 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. Opus 4.5 introduces Tool Search to reduce context bloat by 85%.
Extended Thinking
Charged as regular input tokens. Optional feature with fine-grained API control over reasoning duration. Can be toggled on/off per request. Opus 4.5 preserves thinking blocks from previous turns in context by default.
Official resources: Models overview • Pricing documentation • Opus 4.5 announcement