Prices below were taken from Anthropic's official US pricing page on 4 November 2026 and exclude tax. Anthropic says prices and plans can change, so check claude.com/pricing before you buy.
Is Claude Code free?
Claude Code, the AI coding agent that runs in your terminal, is free to download and install. Using it requires payment, and the free Claude plan does not include Claude Code. You need a paid Claude subscription (Pro, Max, Ultra, Team or Enterprise, with seat eligibility depending on the plan) or pay-as-you-go billing through the Claude Console, where you pay for the tokens you use.
Claude plans and prices
| Plan | Price (US) | Claude Code | Who it is for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Not included | Trying Claude in chat |
| Pro | $17 a month billed yearly ($200 up front), or $20 billed monthly | Included, with usage limits | Everyday work |
| Max | $100 a month | Included, 5x Pro usage | All-day work |
| Ultra | $200 a month | Included, 10x Pro usage each week and no 5-hour limit | Very long tasks |
| Team | Standard seat $20 per seat a month billed yearly ($25 monthly), premium seat $100 ($125 monthly) | Listed on the plan, depends on seat | Teams of 2 to 150 |
| Enterprise | $20 per seat a month billed yearly, 20-seat minimum, plus usage at API rates | Included | Large organizations |
A usage limit is how much you can use Claude before you must wait for it to reset. The Free and Pro plans have two usage limits: one that resets every 5 hours and a weekly one. Max increases both limits to five times the Pro allowance. Ultra removes the 5-hour limit and provides ten times the Pro usage each week. Max and Ultra also come with monthly API credits on the Claude Platform: $100 and $200, respectively, according to the pricing page.
Paying per use through the API
Rather than pay a subscription, you can link Claude Code to the Claude Console and pay for the tokens it uses, which are small pieces of text the AI reads and writes. Anthropic's Claude Code cost documentation reports averages for enterprise deployments, not estimates for a small website: around $13 per developer per active day, $150 to $250 per developer each month, and less than $30 per active day for 90% of users. Pro, Max and Ultra subscribers have usage covered by their subscription, so these amounts do not apply to them.
API billing works well if you use Claude Code occasionally and want to pay only for those days, or if you need to track costs by project. A subscription is easier to predict for steady use.
Which plan fits a website project?
- For your first site or a handful of pages: Pro is a good place to start, at $17 a month with yearly billing or $20 month to month. If you frequently reach the 5-hour limit, you can upgrade later.
- Creating sites every day: Max provides five times the Pro usage for $100 a month.
- Long building sessions without supervision: Ultra removes the 5-hour limit for $200 a month.
- A small agency or team: the Team plan includes shared billing and admin controls. Before buying seats, check which seat type includes Claude Code.
- Infrequent use: pay-as-you-go API billing, with a spending limit set in the Console.
New to building with AI? Our guide to what vibe coding is explains the approach, and the Claude hub brings together our other Claude guides.
Ways to keep the cost down
- Try Pro with monthly billing for one month, then move to yearly billing when you know you will continue using it.
- Prepare a short brief before every session, so Claude uses its usage to build instead of guessing what you want.
- Before you begin, set a spending limit in the Console for the API.
Sources
- Claude pricing page (US view, captured 4 November 2026)
- Claude Code cost documentation
- Claude Code overview
Frequently asked questions
Is Claude Code free?
You can download and install the software for free, but the free Claude plan does not include Claude Code. You need a paid plan such as Pro, or API billing through the Claude Console.
What is the cheapest way to use Claude Code?
For a fixed monthly cost, the cheapest option is Pro, at $17 a month billed yearly ($200 up front) or $20 billed monthly, according to Anthropic's US pricing page on 4 November 2026. If you use Claude Code only now and then, API billing can cost less, because you pay only for the tokens you use.
How much does Claude Code cost on the API?
With the API, you pay for the tokens you use. Anthropic's own documentation says enterprise deployments average about $13 per developer per active day, and 90% of users spend less than $30 a day.