Claude Code API pricing explained
What you pay Anthropic, and how much The Distillery saves you.
How Anthropic charges
Anthropic charges by token. Claude Sonnet (the default model for Claude Code) costs approximately €3 per million input tokens and €15 per million output tokens. Typical sessions are input-heavy, and most of your bill is context re-sent each turn.
The tiers below use a €3/M blended input-heavy rate. Your exact rate depends on model and output ratio.
Cost at 3 usage tiers
| Tier | Usage | Anthropic cost | After 20% reduction | Distillery fee | Net saving |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Light dev | 2M tokens/mo | €6 | €4.80 | €0 (free tier) | €1.20/mo |
| Regular dev | 20M tokens/mo | €60 | €48 | €9 + €1.20 = €10.20 | €1.80/mo |
| Heavy dev | 100M tokens/mo | €300 | €240 | €9 + €6 = €15 | €45/mo |
The 10% fee applies to savings, not total spend. Free tier covers up to €20/mo in savings.
A note on the 30-60% range and 20% benchmark floor
Real-world reduction is 30-60% depending on session patterns. 20% is the conservative deterministic benchmark floor (standard fixtures). Agentic sessions save 38%; monorepo work saves 74%. Your actual reduction depends on your workflow.
Run the benchmark yourself: see the numbers →