costs.md +21 −5
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9Claude Code consumes tokens for each interaction. Costs vary based on codebase size, query complexity, and conversation length. The average cost is \$6 per developer per day, with daily costs remaining below \$12 for 90% of users.9Claude Code consumes tokens for each interaction. Costs vary based on codebase size, query complexity, and conversation length. The average cost is \$6 per developer per day, with daily costs remaining below \$12 for 90% of users.
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1111For team usage, Claude Code charges by API token consumption. On average, Claude Code costs \~\$100-200/developer per month with Sonnet 4.5 though there is large variance depending on how many instances users are running and whether they're using it in automation.For team usage, Claude Code charges by API token consumption. On average, Claude Code costs \~\$100-200/developer per month with Sonnet 4.6 though there is large variance depending on how many instances users are running and whether they're using it in automation.
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13This page covers how to [track your costs](#track-your-costs), [manage costs for teams](#managing-costs-for-teams), and [reduce token usage](#reduce-token-usage).13This page covers how to [track your costs](#track-your-costs), [manage costs for teams](#managing-costs-for-teams), and [reduce token usage](#reduce-token-usage).
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23The `/cost` command provides detailed token usage statistics for your current session:23The `/cost` command provides detailed token usage statistics for your current session:
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2525``````text theme={null}
26Total cost: $0.5526Total cost: $0.55
27Total duration (API): 6m 19.7s27Total duration (API): 6m 19.7s
28Total duration (wall): 6h 33m 10.2s28Total duration (wall): 6h 33m 10.2s
37 When you first authenticate Claude Code with your Claude Console account, a workspace called "Claude Code" is automatically created for you. This workspace provides centralized cost tracking and management for all Claude Code usage in your organization. You cannot create API keys for this workspace; it is exclusively for Claude Code authentication and usage.37 When you first authenticate Claude Code with your Claude Console account, a workspace called "Claude Code" is automatically created for you. This workspace provides centralized cost tracking and management for all Claude Code usage in your organization. You cannot create API keys for this workspace; it is exclusively for Claude Code authentication and usage.
38</Note>38</Note>
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4040On Bedrock, Vertex, and Foundry, Claude Code does not send metrics from your cloud. To get cost metrics, several large enterprises reported using [LiteLLM](/en/llm-gateway#litellm-configuration), which is an open-source tool that helps companies [track spend by key](https://docs.litellm.ai/docs/proxy/virtual_keys#tracking-spend). This project is unaffiliated with Anthropic and we have not audited its security.On Bedrock, Vertex, and Foundry, Claude Code does not send metrics from your cloud. To get cost metrics, several large enterprises reported using [LiteLLM](/en/llm-gateway#litellm-configuration), which is an open-source tool that helps companies [track spend by key](https://docs.litellm.ai/docs/proxy/virtual_keys#tracking-spend). This project is unaffiliated with Anthropic and has not been audited for security.
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42### Rate limit recommendations42### Rate limit recommendations
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55For example, if you have 200 users, you might request 20k TPM for each user, or 4 million total TPM (200\*20,000 = 4 million).55For example, if you have 200 users, you might request 20k TPM for each user, or 4 million total TPM (200\*20,000 = 4 million).
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5757The TPM per user decreases as team size grows because we expect fewer users to use Claude Code concurrently in larger organizations. These rate limits apply at the organization level, not per individual user, which means individual users can temporarily consume more than their calculated share when others aren't actively using the service.The TPM per user decreases as team size grows because fewer users tend to use Claude Code concurrently in larger organizations. These rate limits apply at the organization level, not per individual user, which means individual users can temporarily consume more than their calculated share when others aren't actively using the service.
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59<Note>59<Note>
60 If you anticipate scenarios with unusually high concurrent usage (such as live training sessions with large groups), you may need higher TPM allocations per user.60 If you anticipate scenarios with unusually high concurrent usage (such as live training sessions with large groups), you may need higher TPM allocations per user.
61</Note>61</Note>
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63### Agent team token costs
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65[Agent teams](/en/agent-teams) spawn multiple Claude Code instances, each with its own context window. Token usage scales with the number of active teammates and how long each one runs.
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67To keep agent team costs manageable:
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69* Use Sonnet for teammates. It balances capability and cost for coordination tasks.
70* Keep teams small. Each teammate runs its own context window, so token usage is roughly proportional to team size.
71* Keep spawn prompts focused. Teammates load CLAUDE.md, MCP servers, and skills automatically, but everything in the spawn prompt adds to their context from the start.
72* Clean up teams when work is done. Active teammates continue consuming tokens even if idle.
73* Agent teams are disabled by default. Set `CLAUDE_CODE_EXPERIMENTAL_AGENT_TEAMS=1` in your [settings.json](/en/settings) or environment to enable them. See [enable agent teams](/en/agent-teams#enable-agent-teams).
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63## Reduce token usage75## Reduce token usage
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65Token costs scale with context size: the more context Claude processes, the more tokens you use. Claude Code automatically optimizes costs through prompt caching (which reduces costs for repeated content like system prompts) and auto-compaction (which summarizes conversation history when approaching context limits).77Token costs scale with context size: the more context Claude processes, the more tokens you use. Claude Code automatically optimizes costs through prompt caching (which reduces costs for repeated content like system prompts) and auto-compaction (which summarizes conversation history when approaching context limits).
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154### Adjust extended thinking166### Adjust extended thinking
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156168Extended thinking is enabled by default with a budget of 31,999 tokens because it significantly improves performance on complex planning and reasoning tasks. However, thinking tokens are billed as output tokens, so for simpler tasks where deep reasoning isn't needed, you can reduce costs by disabling it in `/config` or lowering the budget (for example, `MAX_THINKING_TOKENS=8000`).Extended thinking is enabled by default because it significantly improves performance on complex planning and reasoning tasks. Thinking tokens are billed as output tokens, and the default budget can be tens of thousands of tokens per request depending on the model. For simpler tasks where deep reasoning isn't needed, you can reduce costs by lowering the [effort level](/en/model-config#adjust-effort-level) with `/effort` or in `/model`, disabling thinking in `/config`, or lowering the budget with `MAX_THINKING_TOKENS=8000`.
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158### Delegate verbose operations to subagents170### Delegate verbose operations to subagents
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160Running tests, fetching documentation, or processing log files can consume significant context. Delegate these to [subagents](/en/sub-agents#isolate-high-volume-operations) so the verbose output stays in the subagent's context while only a summary returns to your main conversation.172Running tests, fetching documentation, or processing log files can consume significant context. Delegate these to [subagents](/en/sub-agents#isolate-high-volume-operations) so the verbose output stays in the subagent's context while only a summary returns to your main conversation.
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174### Manage agent team costs
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176Agent teams use approximately 7x more tokens than standard sessions when teammates run in plan mode, because each teammate maintains its own context window and runs as a separate Claude instance. Keep team tasks small and self-contained to limit per-teammate token usage. See [agent teams](/en/agent-teams) for details.
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162### Write specific prompts178### Write specific prompts
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164Vague requests like "improve this codebase" trigger broad scanning. Specific requests like "add input validation to the login function in auth.ts" let Claude work efficiently with minimal file reads.180Vague requests like "improve this codebase" trigger broad scanning. Specific requests like "add input validation to the login function in auth.ts" let Claude work efficiently with minimal file reads.