> You can also use API tokens, yes, but that’s 5-10x more expensive. So I wouldn’t.

100% agree as someone that uses API tokens. I use it via API tokens only because my work gave me some Anthropic keys and the directive "burn the tokens!" (they want to see us using it and don't give a crap about costs).

This is going to depend on what you're doing with it. I use Claude code for some stuff multiple times a day, and it is an unusual for a session to cost me $0.05. Even the most expensive thing I did ended up costing like $6, and that was a big and intensive workflow.

The size of the code base you are working in also matters. On an old, large code base, the cost does go up, though still not real high. On a new or relatively small code base, it is not unusual for my requests to cost a tenth of a cent. For what I am doing, paying with an API key is much cheaper than a subscription would be

If API tokens are 10x more expensive doesn’t that imply that the constant-cost subscription is massively subsidized?

It’s best at small to medium projects written in a consistent style.

So. It’s a potential superpower for personal projects, yet I don’t see it being very useful in a corporate setting.

I used Claude Code to make this little thing: https://github.com/Baughn/ScriptView

…took me thirty minutes. It wouldn’t have existed otherwise.