Three ways to pay for Claude API access, compared
There are three ways to pay for Claude: Anthropic direct, a prepaid credit reseller, or a pay-as-you-go gateway. They are not the same product, and the lowest headline number is not always the one that costs you least — prepay, expiry and minimum top-up all change the answer.
| Route | Price | Prepay | Commitment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anthropic direct | List price | None | None |
| Prepaid credit resellers | 20–25% of list | $250 – $10,000 | Buy a bundle |
| Pay-as-you-go gateway | 50% of Anthropic list (verified) | $1 minimum | None |
The part the headline numbers hide: the 75–80% off offers require prepaying hundreds or thousands of dollars up front. If you spend $40 a month, tying up $250 of capital to save $30 a month takes eight months just to break even — and you carry the risk that the reseller disappears.
Claude prices compared
| Model | Official in / out | Ours in / out | Saving |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Opus 5 | 5 / 25 | 2.5 / 12.5 | -50% |
| Claude Sonnet 5 | 2 / 10 | 1 / 5 | -50% |
| Claude Fable 5 | 10 / 50 | 5 / 25 | -50% |
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 1 / 5 | 0.5 / 2.5 | -50% |
USD per 1M tokens, verified 2026-09-16.
Check current rates →
Free to sign up · $1 minimum top-up · No prepayment
Which one should you pick
- Spend under $100 a month? Pay-as-you-go at 50% of list. Prepaying locks up capital for a discount you may not live long enough to use.
- Spend over $2,000 a month and can commit capital? Run the numbers on a prepaid bundle — the deeper discount may win.
- Need an enterprise contract, SLA or SOC 2? Stay with Anthropic direct. Neither reseller route replaces that.
How to switch
Claude Code · Cursor · SDK