Pick a plan and check it covers your coding
Start with Pro or the API
Pro includes Claude Code. If you'd rather pay only for what you use, sign in to Claude Code with a Claude Console account and pay standard API rates.
Watch your usage for a week
Run /usage in Claude Code and check Settings > Usage on claude.ai. If you regularly hit the five-hour or weekly limit, Max gives five times Pro's usage and Ultra ten times Pro's weekly usage.
Avoid paying twice
Unset ANTHROPIC_API_KEY unless you mean to use it: when it's set, Claude Code bills that key at API rates instead of your plan.
Claude plans that include Claude Code
| Plan | Price (US, excluding tax) | Includes Claude Code? | Usage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | No | Claude Code not included |
| Pro | $20 a month, or $17 a month billed annually ($200 up front) | Yes | Five-hour session limit and a weekly limit |
| Max | $100 a month | Yes | Five times Pro every five hours and every week; Fable included up to half your weekly limit |
| Ultra | $200 a month | Yes | Ten times Pro's weekly usage; no five-hour limit for verified accounts |
| Team, Standard seat | $25 per member a month, or $20 billed annually | Yes | 1.25 times Pro's per-session allowance, plus a weekly limit |
| Team, Premium seat | $125 per member a month, or $100 billed annually | Yes | 6.25 times Pro's per-session allowance, plus a weekly limit |
| Enterprise | $20 per seat a month billed annually (20-seat minimum), plus all usage billed at standard API rates | Yes, with the Enterprise seat on new and self-serve plans | No per-seat usage limits; billed by consumption |
| Claude Console (API) | Pay as you go at standard API rates | Yes, billed per token | No subscription limits; billed per token |
Anthropic says Claude Code is included with every Team plan seat, Standard and Premium; Premium seats add more usage for heavier workloads. On Enterprise, the seat fee gives each person Claude on web, desktop and mobile plus Claude Code and Cowork, but includes no usage: every token is billed at standard API rates. Older Enterprise contracts include Claude Code only on certain seat types.
Team plans need at least two members. Max and Ultra are monthly only and include monthly API credits for the Claude Platform, which don't apply to interactive Claude Code in the terminal, IDE, desktop or web. Mobile prices can differ. Anthropic may adjust usage limits.
- Anthropic: Claude plans and pricing
- Anthropic: What is the Pro plan?
- Anthropic: What is the Max plan?
- Anthropic: What is the Ultra plan?
- Anthropic: What is the Team plan?
- Anthropic: What is the Enterprise plan?
- Anthropic: Use Claude Code with your Team or Enterprise plan
- Anthropic: How am I billed for my Enterprise plan?
- Anthropic: Use Claude Code with your Pro, Max, or Ultra plan
- Anthropic: API credits included with Max, Ultra and Team
Subscription vs pay-as-you-go API: which is cheaper for Claude Code?
A plan is a flat monthly price: Pro at $20 ($17 billed annually), Max at $100 or Ultra at $200 covers your Claude Code use up to the plan's five-hour and weekly limits, and usage inside them isn't billed per token. With a Claude Console API key you pay only for the tokens you use: Claude Sonnet 5.5 costs $2 / MTok for input, $10 / MTok for output, $2.50 / MTok to write the prompt cache (five-minute cache) and $0.10 / MTok to read it, and Claude Opus 5.5 costs $4, $20, $5 and $0.20.
Claude Code's costs docs put the average across enterprise deployments at around $13 per developer per active day, or $150 to $250 per developer per month, at API rates, with 90% of users below $30 per active day. As a rough rule, if you code with Claude Code most days, a plan is likely to cost less than the same work on the API, as long as its limits fit how much you use it; if you use it only now and then, so your token bill would stay under $20 a month, the API is likely cheaper. Your own cost depends on the model, how long your sessions run and how much of each prompt is read from the cache, and the /usage command in Claude Code estimates a session's cost at list prices.
Hit your limit? Reason keeps going on your other connected accounts or Reason credits.
What it costs on the API
On Anthropic's API pricing page, Claude Sonnet 5.5 costs $2 / MTok for input and $10 / MTok for output, and Claude Opus 5.5 costs $4 / MTok for input and $20 / MTok for output (MTok is a million tokens). Claude Code bills these rates when you sign in with a Claude Console account instead of a plan.
How usage maps to limits
A plan doesn't buy a number of messages. It sets your share of usage per five-hour session and per week, measured in multiples of Pro, and how quickly you use it depends on the model, effort level, conversation length and tools. Usage credits let you keep going past a limit on paid plans.
Questions
Is the $20 Claude code worth it?
It depends on how much you code. The $20 Pro plan ($17 a month billed annually) includes Claude Code with a five-hour session limit and a weekly limit, shared with claude.ai and Claude Desktop, and how fast you use them depends on the model, how long your chats are and how large your files are. If you regularly hit those limits, Max gives five times Pro's usage for $100; if you code only now and then, a Claude Console account bills only the tokens you use.
Is Claude Code free for coding?
No. The Free plan doesn't include Claude Code. It comes with the paid plans (Pro, Max, Ultra, Team and Enterprise), or you can pay per token with a Claude Console API key.
Why is Claude Max so expensive?
Its price follows its usage. Max costs $100 a month, five times Pro's $20 monthly price, and gives five times Pro's usage every five hours and every week. Ultra costs $200, ten times Pro's price, and gives ten times Pro's weekly usage with no five-hour limit for verified accounts. Max also includes Fable up to half your weekly limit and $100 a month in Claude Platform API credits; Ultra includes $200 a month.
How much does Claude Code cost?
It is included in Claude Pro ($20 a month, or $17 a month billed annually), Max ($100), Ultra ($200), Team and Enterprise. You can also pay per token through a Claude Console account.
Is there a Claude Max 20x plan?
It is now called Ultra, at $200 a month. Existing Max 20x subscribers moved to Ultra automatically with no price change.
Is Claude Code included in Claude Team?
Yes. Anthropic says Claude Code is included with every Team plan seat. A Standard seat costs $25 per member a month ($20 billed annually) with 1.25 times Pro's per-session usage, and a Premium seat costs $125 ($100 billed annually) with 6.25 times. Team plans need at least two members, and the plan's monthly API credits can't be used in Claude Code.
Is Claude Code really worth it?
It depends on how much you code. Claude Code's costs docs put the average across enterprise deployments at around $13 per developer per active day at API rates, or $150 to $250 a month, so if you code most days, a $20 Pro or $100 Max plan is likely to cost less for the same work, as long as you stay within its limits. If you code only now and then, a Claude Console account bills only the tokens you use.
Can Max's API credits pay for Claude Code?
Not for interactive use. Anthropic says those monthly API credits don't apply to interactive Claude Code in the terminal, IDE, desktop or web; they do cover claude -p and the Agent SDK run with an API key from your linked Claude Console organization.