Claude Code pricing 2026: Pro, Max, API costs and limits
Claude Code plans, current token rates and shared limits, with a dated price table and the billing traps to check before upgrading.
TL;DR: Claude Code starts at about €17.88 monthly on Pro, with Max tiers around €89.38 and €178.76, while API billing and optional usage credits charge separately.
Prices checked 14 October 2026. Choosing a plan means checking both the monthly fee and the allowance your coding work consumes. Shared weekly limits and separate API charges can change the total.
What plans include Claude Code access?
Claude Code is included in paid Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans. The Free plan excludes it. The official plan pricing and Max plan tiers give these web subscription prices, checked 14 October 2026.
| Plan | Monthly euro estimate | Billing and allowance | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pro | About €17.88 | Monthly; annual billing also available | Occasional interactive coding |
| Max 5x | About €89.38 | Monthly; 5x Pro per session | Frequent users who exhaust Pro |
| Max 20x | About €178.76 | Monthly; 20x Pro per session | Users who exhaust Max 5x |
| Team Standard | About €22.35 | Monthly; €17.88 per seat/month annually | Shared billing and administration |
| Team Premium | About €111.73 | Monthly; €89.38 per seat/month annually | Team members needing 5x Standard usage |
| Enterprise | About €17.88 | Per seat/month, billed annually, plus API-rate usage | Organizations needing spend controls |
Prices checked October 2026. Euro amounts convert Anthropic's USD list prices using the ECB reference rate dated 13 October: one euro equals 1.1188 US dollars. These estimates exclude tax, card conversion fees and local checkout differences.
Pro's annual subscription costs about €178.76 upfront, equivalent to €14.90 per month. Max is monthly only. Team now serves 2-150 members; its Standard and Premium seats have different allowances. Enterprise adds consumption charges to its seat fee, so its headline seat price is not the total cost.
How do Claude Code usage limits work?
Pro and Max have a five-hour session limit and a weekly limit. Max also has a separate weekly limit for Fable, according to the Claude Code subscription guide. The older description of a Sonnet-only weekly cap no longer matches this guide.
The usage-limit documentation says activity across Claude chat, Desktop and Claude Code shares the same allowance. A second terminal or IDE does not create another pool. Model choice, conversation length, task complexity and effort affect consumption; a plan multiplier does not guarantee a fixed number of coding hours.
Check the reset time your account displays. Reaching a limit at 14:00 does not by itself prove that you must wait until 19:00: the session's reset schedule matters. A weekly limit can also stop work even after the five-hour allowance returns.
What does Claude Code cost on the API?
API access charges for input, output and cache activity. It is separate from subscription usage. The API pricing documentation lists these standard rates, converted to euros per million tokens using the same reference rate.
| Model | Input / million tokens | Output / million tokens | Cache read / million tokens |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sonnet 5.5 | €1.79 | €8.94 | €0.09 |
| Opus 5.5 | €3.58 | €17.88 | €0.18 |
| Fable 5.1 | €8.94 | €44.69 | €0.22 |
| Haiku 5.5, prompt up to 100,000 tokens | €0.09 | €0.45 | €0.01 |
| Haiku 5.5, prompt over 100,000 tokens | €0.45 | €2.23 | €0.04 |
For example, 100,000 uncached input tokens and 20,000 output tokens on Sonnet 5.5 cost about €0.36. That is arithmetic from published rates, not a measured coding session.
Five-minute cache writes cost 1.25 times base input pricing. Cache reads on Sonnet 5.5 and Opus 5.5 cost 5% of base input pricing. Haiku 5.5's higher rate applies when a request's prompt exceeds 100,000 tokens, including cached input. Batch API discounts apply to batch requests; they are not an automatic discount on interactive Claude Code.
The cost-management guide documents /usage for checking tokens, estimated session cost and subscription allowance. A subscriber's displayed token cost is not an extra invoice for included use. API users should compare it with the Console Usage page, where actual billing is recorded.
Which plan is right for your usage pattern?
Start with Pro for individual interactive work if its allowance fits. Max 5x is worth considering when Pro's session limit repeatedly interrupts useful work; Max 20x fits users who still exhaust that capacity. Neither tier guarantees an uninterrupted workday.
Use Team when shared billing and administration matter. Budget Enterprise as seats plus consumption. For API applications, estimate your actual token mix and set a spending limit before scaling. Compare the alternatives in Cursor vs Claude Code and Codex vs Claude Code.
Max includes monthly API credits, but the monthly API credit rules exclude interactive Claude Code and extra usage. Claiming them requires an eligible plan for seven days and linking a Console organization; unused credits expire each billing cycle.
If you need to continue after a subscription limit, optional usage credits use standard API pricing and create additional charges. Enable them in Settings > Usage and set a monthly spend limit. A subscription fee alone does not cap your bill when paid overage is enabled.
Also check authentication: ANTHROPIC_API_KEY can select API billing even when you have a subscription. The subscription guide documents this precedence. Confirm the account before interpreting a cost readout or buying a higher plan.
How do you choose a Claude Code budget?
- Check your current session and weekly usage.
- Compare the appropriate plan or seat price.
- Confirm whether authentication selects subscription or API billing.
- Set a spend limit before enabling paid usage credits.
FAQ
How much does Claude Code cost per month?
Pro's monthly web subscription is about €17.88 before tax using the stated conversion. Max 5x and Max 20x are about €89.38 and €178.76; annual Pro billing reduces the monthly equivalent.
Is there a free version of Claude Code?
The Claude Free plan does not include Claude Code. Paid plans include access, and API billing provides a separate consumption-based route.
What does "5x usage" on Max 5x actually mean?
It means five times Pro's allowance per session. Workload and model choice affect how far that goes, and weekly limits still apply.
How does the 5-hour rolling window work on Claude Code Pro?
The session allowance resets on a five-hour schedule. Read your account's reset time; the time you hit the ceiling alone does not determine when you can resume.
Should I use the API or a subscription plan for Claude Code?
Compare the included allowance with your actual API token costs. For predictable subscription spending, keep usage credits disabled and check that API-key authentication is not selecting separate billing.
What happens when I hit my Claude Code usage limit?
Wait for the relevant reset, consider a higher tier, or pay for usage credits. An all-model weekly limit affects every model; switching models cannot bypass it.