Claude Code has two pricing options, and questions about “how much it costs” often get muddled because they combine the two. A subscription is a fixed monthly fee with usage windows, while an API key charges per token with no monthly fee or cap. This page covers the current rates, actual monthly costs, how to calculate which option to choose, and how to pay in South Korea.
Rates verified against October 3, 2026 — sources: claude.com/pricing and Anthropic API pricing documentation. Kunavo’s per-token rates are read live from the model catalog.
Compare the two options side by side
| Subscription (Pro / Max) | API key (pay-as-you-go) | |
|---|---|---|
| What you pay | Fixed monthly fee, starting at $20 | Per token, no monthly fee |
| Limits | 5-hour rolling window + weekly limit, shared with Claude chat | None — pay for what you use |
| Months with no usage | Full amount billed | $0 |
| Months with heavy usage | Hits the cap — blocked until the limit resets | Scales with usage (and so does the bill) |
| Payment in South Korea | Recurring payment in dollars; card must support overseas payments | Domestic and international cards (including JCB), Apple Pay · Google Pay, Kakao Pay · Naver Pay · PAYCO · Samsung Pay, prepaid balance |
How much do subscription plans cost?
Claude Code is included with paid claude.ai plans. Anthropic’s installation guide explicitly states that Claude Code isn’t available on the Free plan. Pro costs $20 per month ($17 per month when billed annually, $200 upfront) and is suited to one developer working within the plan limits. Max starts at $100 per month and is for users who regularly hit those limits. Team and Enterprise add per-seat quotas and spending controls for administrators.
There are two practical considerations in South Korea. First, billing is a recurring payment in dollars, so you need a card that allows overseas payments, and your card issuer’s foreign transaction fee is charged every month. Second, usage limits are shared with Claude chat: spending the afternoon discussing things in chat reduces what the coding session can use in the same window.
How much does the API cost?
There’s no monthly fee; you pay per token. Prices are in USD per 1M tokens, with Anthropic’s list prices shown alongside for easy comparison.
| Model | Anthropic list price (input / output) | Kunavo (input / output) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | $1.00 / $5.00 | $0.70 / $3.50 | Approximately 30% lower |
| Claude Sonnet 4.6 | $3.00 / $15.00 | $2.10 / $10.50 | Approximately 30% lower |
| Claude Sonnet 5 | $2.00 / $10.00 | $1.40 / $7.00 | Approximately 30% lower |
| Claude Opus 5 | $5.00 / $25.00 | $3.50 / $17.50 | Approximately 30% lower |
Cached input is billed at 10% of the input rate, and Claude Code rereads the entire conversation at every step. In practice, caching can affect your bill more than your choice of model.
Break-even point: cost per agentic step
The choice between a subscription and the API depends on how many agentic steps you run in a month—one step is one exchange with the model within a task. In practice, a step is roughly 25,000 input tokens and 1,200 output tokens, including the system prompt, conversation, and file context. At the rates above:
| Model | Per step | Steps for $20 |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | $0.022 | About 900 steps |
| Claude Sonnet 5 | $0.043 | About 460 steps |
| Claude Opus 5 | $0.109 | About 180 steps |
That means a $20 Pro plan covers about 460 steps with Sonnet 5, or around 23 jobs with 20 steps each. If you use less than that, pay-as-you-go is cheaper, and months with no usage cost $0. If you use more and can work within the plan limits, a subscription is better.
To calculate this for your own usage, run /usage in Claude Code to get four token counts, then enter them below.
# Claude Code 세션 하나의 실제 비용을 그 세션의 토큰 수로 역산합니다.
# 네 개의 실제 숫자는 Claude Code 안에서 /usage 를 실행하면 나옵니다.
RATES = { # Kunavo의 1M 토큰당 USD: (input, output)
"claude-haiku-4-5": (0.70, 3.50),
"claude-sonnet-4-6": (2.10, 10.50),
"claude-sonnet-5": (1.40, 7.00),
"claude-opus-5": (3.50, 17.50),
}
def session_cost(model, inp, out, cache_read=0, cache_write=0):
i, o = RATES[model]
return (
inp / 1e6 * i # 새 입력
+ out / 1e6 * o # 출력, 사고 토큰 포함
+ cache_read / 1e6 * i * 0.10 # 캐시 읽기: 입력 요율의 10%
+ cache_write / 1e6 * i * 1.25 # 5분 캐시 쓰기: 125%
)
print(session_cost("claude-sonnet-5", 1_200, 5_300, 940_000, 50_000))Payment in South Korea
The API route through Kunavo is prepaid. Top up from a minimum of $10 with domestic or international credit and debit cards (Visa, Mastercard, Amex, JCB, UnionPay), Apple Pay, or Google Pay; usage is deducted as incurred, and the balance never expires — the international-use fee is charged only once when topping up. claude.ai subscriptions are recurring USD payments, so that fee is charged monthly.
When checkout is displayed in Korean won, Kakao Pay, Naver Pay, PAYCO, Samsung Pay, and domestic cards (cards without international payments enabled) are available as payment methods. Toss is not supported. Prices are set in USD, and Stripe converts them to Korean won on the checkout page; the exchange rate includes a 2–4% currency-conversion fee (you can avoid it by paying in dollars, but domestic wallets appear only for Korean-won payments). The complete list of payment methods is in the billing documentation; for Claude API costs and payment in Korea, see Claude API pricing and payments.
Route Claude Code through a cheaper endpoint
Claude Code uses two environment variables to decide where to send requests. Routing requests to a different endpoint doesn’t require reinstalling anything or replacing the CLI.
export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=https://api.kunavo.com
export ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN=sk-kn-...
export ANTHROPIC_MODEL=claude-sonnet-5
export ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_OPUS_MODEL=claude-opus-5-5
export ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_SONNET_MODEL=claude-sonnet-5
export ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL=claude-haiku-4-5Set the model line to Claude Code's default model and the opus, sonnet, and haiku aliases provided by Kunavo. The aliases follow Anthropic's latest models, but the Sonnet 5.5 currently referenced by the sonnet alias is unavailable on Kunavo; without pinning the model, /model sonnet, the execution stage of opusplan, and subagents configured with sonnet end in a 404. Pin the opus alias to Claude Opus 5.5 (Kunavo rate: input $2.80 / output $14.00); this model requires Claude Code v2.1.280 or later (on earlier versions, update with claude update). After that, Claude Code continues to work unchanged, while model calls use the new endpoint and rates. To return to the subscription, remove the variables. If you do not have a key yet, start with Issue a Claude API key. For configuration details, see Configure a Claude Code API key; to distribute different request types across different models, see Claude Code Router.
Four ways to reduce costs
- Let caching work. Cached input is billed at 10% of the rate, and Claude Code rereads the entire conversation at every step (how it works).
- Clear the context between unrelated tasks. An endless session resends the entire history at every step—a shorter context costs less.
- Choose a model that fits the problem. Using the largest model by default is the most expensive and most common mistake.
- Route internal calls to Haiku —
ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL. These calls are frequent and simple.
For practical guidance beyond pricing—writing CLAUDE.md, configuring permissions, and continuing when the usage window closes—see How to use Claude Code. For installation issues, see Install Claude Code. For how subscription usage limits work and what to do when you hit one, see Claude Pro limits.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Claude Code cost?
The price depends on which option you choose: there are two. A claude.ai subscription includes Claude Code for a fixed monthly fee—Pro costs $20 per month ($17 per month when billed annually, $200 upfront), and Max starts at $100 per month. With an API key, you pay per token with no monthly fee. As of October 3, 2026, Anthropic’s list prices are $2.00 input / $10.00 output per 1M tokens for Claude Sonnet 5, and $5.00 / $25.00 for Claude Opus 5. Anthropic’s own documentation estimates actual usage at “about $13 per active developer per day, or $150–250 per month.” Using the same models through Kunavo costs $1.40 / $7.00 and $3.50 / $17.50.
Can I use Claude Code for free?
The CLI, editor extension, and settings are all free. Model calls aren’t free, and there’s no free tier that lets Claude Code call models at no cost—Anthropic’s installation guide states that Claude Code access isn’t included in the Claude.ai Free plan. The lowest-commitment option is a pay-as-you-go key with no monthly fee; months when you don’t use it cost $0.
Which is cheaper, a subscription or an API key?
It depends on how many agentic steps you run, not how many days you work. One step is roughly 25,000 input tokens and 1,200 output tokens. At Kunavo’s rates, one step with Claude Sonnet 5 costs about $0.043. So the $20 Pro plan covers roughly 460 steps, or about 23 jobs with 20 steps each. Use less than that and pay-as-you-go is cheaper, with a $0 cost in months when you don’t use it. Use more, and a subscription is better if you’re willing to work within the plan limits.
Does Claude Pro include API access?
No. A claude.ai subscription and a Claude API key are separate products with separate billing, and their usage doesn’t combine. While a credential environment variable such as ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN is set, Claude Code uses that key instead of signing in—the plan limits no longer apply, and usage is billed to the key owner. Remove the variable to switch back to your subscription.
What is Claude Code’s 5-hour usage limit?
Subscription usage is measured in a rolling window that refreshes every 5 hours, along with a weekly limit, and is shared with Claude chat. That means an afternoon spent discussing things in chat reduces what the coding session can use within the same window. If you hit the limit, you have to wait for the next window. The API key option has no such window; instead, you’re charged for what you use.
How do you pay for Claude Code in South Korea?
The API route through Kunavo is prepaid — top up from a minimum of $10 with domestic or international credit and debit cards (Visa, Mastercard, Amex, JCB, UnionPay), Apple Pay, or Google Pay, deducting usage as you go; the balance never expires. When checkout is displayed in Korean won, Kakao Pay, Naver Pay, PAYCO, Samsung Pay, and domestic cards (including cards without international payments enabled) are also available (Toss is not supported). By contrast, claude.ai subscriptions are recurring USD payments requiring a card with international payments enabled, and card-issuer international-use fees are charged monthly. Get started with sign-up followed by key issuance.
How can I reduce Claude Code costs?
Here are four approaches, in order of impact: let prompt caching work (cached input is billed at 10% of the input rate, and Claude Code rereads the entire conversation at every step); clear the context between unrelated tasks instead of continuing one session indefinitely; choose a model that fits the size of the problem instead of defaulting to the largest; and route Claude Code’s internal calls to Haiku with ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL. Routing ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL to a cheaper endpoint is an additional option on top of these four.