April 3, 2026pricingcomparison

Claude API Pricing: Official vs claudeapi.cheap (2026)

Detailed cost comparison showing how much you save with claudeapi.cheap across all Claude models.

The Real Cost of Claude API

Anthropic's Claude API is powerful, but pricing can add up fast â especially if you're running production workloads or experimenting with Opus.

Here's exactly how much you save with claudeapi.cheap:

|--------|----------|---------------------------|----------|

| Input / 1M tokens | $15.00 | $7.50 | $7.50 |

| Output / 1M tokens | $75.00 | $37.50 | $37.50 |

For a typical Opus session (2K input, 4K output tokens):

Official: $0.33 per request

claudeapi.cheap: $0.165 per request

At 1000 requests/day: save $4,950/month

|--------|----------|---------------------------|----------|

| Input / 1M tokens | $3.00 | $1.50 | $1.50 |

| Output / 1M tokens | $15.00 | $7.50 | $7.50 |

For production apps (1K input, 2K output tokens):

Official: $0.033 per request

claudeapi.cheap: $0.0165 per request

At 10,000 requests/day: save $4,950/month

|--------|----------|---------------------------|----------|

| Input / 1M tokens | $0.80 | $0.40 | $0.40 |

| Output / 1M tokens | $4.00 | $2.00 | $2.00 |

For high-volume batch processing (500 input, 1K output tokens):

Official: $0.0044 per request

claudeapi.cheap: $0.0022 per request

At 100,000 requests/day: save $6,600/month

Free: 30% off, no monthly fee

Pro ($29/mo): 40% off

Ultimate ($49/mo): 50% off

The Ultimate plan pays for itself after just ~$100 of API usage.

We use the same Anthropic models. Same quality, same context window, same streaming. The only difference is the price.