If you are evaluating Claude for production, the question that decides the project is "what will this cost at scale?" The free Claude Cost Calculator answers that in under a minute.
What it accepts
Monthly request volume
Average input tokens per request
Average output tokens per request
Model tier (Opus 4.7 / Sonnet 4.6 / Haiku 4.5)
Cache hit rate (the fraction of input tokens served from cache)
Batch API toggle (50% off)
What it returns
Monthly USD bill, broken down by input / output / cache
Annual projection
Cost-per-request
Side-by-side comparison if you switch tiers
Why estimates matter
A 2,000-input / 500-output workload across 10M monthly requests:
Opus 4.7, no cache: $675,000/month
Opus 4.7, 80% cache hit on input: $189,000/month — saves $486k/month
Sonnet 4.6, 80% cache hit + batch: $20,250/month
Same workload, three numbers spanning 33×. The calculator helps you spot which lever matters most.
Diff Summarizer — try Claude on real input without committing.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free tier for the Anthropic API?
Anthropic does not offer a permanent free tier, but new accounts receive a small credit to start. The Claude.ai consumer product has a free plan. For API access, you need a paid account with a billing method on file.
What is the most cost-effective Claude setup for a small startup?
Claude Sonnet 4.6 with prompt caching on a reused system prompt. With an 80%+ cache-hit rate on input tokens, effective input cost drops to around $0.30–0.60 per million tokens — comparable to Haiku uncached but with significantly higher capability.
How do I estimate my Claude API bill before I start building?
Count your average input tokens (prompt + context) and expected output tokens per request, multiply by your monthly request volume, and apply the per-million-token rate for your chosen model. The free Claude Cost Calculator on this site does that math automatically including cache and batch discounts.