Cheap Claude API: Opus, Sonnet and Haiku below list price

Claude API prices vs Anthropic list price

"From" prices are based on the Economy channel, the lowest-priced Claude channel currently listed (about 19% of Anthropic list price). Other channels cost more; the rate depends on the channel you choose, and the models page is always the source of truth.

Prices are in USD per million tokens. Cache reads are where long Claude Code sessions spend most of their tokens, so the cache-read column often matters more than the input price.

Every model and channelClaude models overview

Why the rate can be lower than list price

aicodewith is an independent platform that aggregates capacity from several third-party providers. Each source is offered as a channel with its own rate, and the rate is shown before you send a request. Lower-priced channels can differ in availability and speed, which is why each model page also shows channel health.

• •You choose the channel; nothing switches you to a different rate silently.
• •Every request is billed per token from your balance and listed in your usage records with model, tokens and cost.
• •If a cheaper channel is busy, you can move to another one instead of waiting.

How to check you get the model you pay for

1. Send a request and read the model field in the response; it names the model that answered.
2. Open your usage records: each request shows the model, input, output and cache tokens, and the charge.
3. In Claude Code, run /status for the endpoint and /cost for the session's token count and cost.
4. Compare quality on your own prompts. The model page shows each channel's recent health if something looks off.

Payment, top-ups and refunds

Top-up optionsPayments FAQRefund policy

Use it from Claude Code or the SDK

1. 1. Claude Code

   Add the env block to ~/.claude/settings.json and restart. ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL is the bare domain, with no /v1.

   ~/.claude/settings.json

   {
     "env": {
       "ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN": "YOUR_API_KEY",
       "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY": "",
       "ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL": "https://api.aicodewith.ai"
     }
   }

2. 2. curl (Anthropic Messages API)

   The Messages API path is /v1/messages on api.aicodewith.ai.

   bash

   curl https://api.aicodewith.ai/v1/messages \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
     -H "anthropic-version: 2023-06-01" \
     -H "content-type: application/json" \
     -d '{
       "model": "claude-sonnet-5-5",
       "max_tokens": 512,
       "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}]
     }'

3. 3. Python (anthropic SDK)

   Point the SDK at the base URL and pass your key as the auth token.

   python

   from anthropic import Anthropic
   
   client = Anthropic(
       base_url="https://api.aicodewith.ai",
       auth_token="YOUR_API_KEY",
   )
   
   message = client.messages.create(
       model="claude-sonnet-5-5",
       max_tokens=512,
       messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}],
   )
   print(message.content[0].text)

Claude Code setup guideClaude Code API keyDocs

Compared with OpenRouter and other aggregators

If you need a very wide model catalog, OpenRouter fits better. If you mostly run Claude Code or Codex and care about the per-token rate, compare the prices in the table above with the rates you pay today.

FAQ