How does Anthropic typically price Claude API usage?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
Anthropic charges by the token, not by the month or the call. You pay separate rates for input and output tokens, and output usually costs more because generating is harder than reading.
Full Explanation
Anthropic's API pricing is token-based, with distinct per-token rates for input tokens and output tokens. Output tokens are typically priced higher than input tokens. Prices vary by model, with Haiku being the cheapest per token and Opus the most expensive. This pricing model encourages using larger models only when needed and optimizing prompt lengths. A flat monthly subscription with unlimited API calls does not match Anthropic's pay-per-use pricing model for API access. A per-API-call model that ignores the length of input or output would disadvantage short requests. Pricing based on response time, where faster responses cost more, is not how Anthropic prices its API.