AnyRouter alternative: Claude Code on a prepaid key, no daily check-in
What AnyRouter is, from its own listings read on 2026-10-27, and the paid alternative: a prepaid balance that needs no daily check-in, no shared quota behind a 429 or 403, Claude by API with crypto or card, no KYC.
Pick AnyRouter when free is the whole decision and a daily check-in is fine. Pick RelaySwitch when Claude Code has to work at 9 a.m. without a ritual, a quota shared with strangers, or a 429 in the middle of a refactor: a prepaid balance you load by card or crypto,11 Claude ids in the Anthropic format, prices read live next to Anthropic's list, and no identity check. Every AnyRouter fact on this page carries the date and the page it was read from.
- Claude ids here
- 11
- Under Anthropic's list
- 11
- AnyRouter read
- 2026-10-27
- Check-in here
- None
01What AnyRouter is, read 2026-10-27
AnyRouter (anyrouter.top) is a relay that sits in front of Anthropic's API for Claude Code users. On 2026-10-27 the directory listing at huntifyai.com described it as "A Claude Code relay station providing Anthropic-compatible API access to Claude, GPT, and Gemini models", with sign-in by GitHub, LinuxDO or email, a credit for new accounts and a referral bonus, and per-token billing after that. The same listing dated its price figures June 2026 and marked them as possibly outdated, so no number from it is repeated here; its own site is the source.
The check-in is the part that defines the service. Its sign-in page is titled "Check-in" in Google's results, and the anyrouter topic on GitHub held 14 repositories on 2026-10-27, most of them scripts that perform the daily check-in across several accounts and notify you when it runs; one exists to rotate proxy nodes when anyrouter.top answers 403. The pi-anyrouter package lists the Claude ids it registers against the relay, claude-opus-5-5 among them, with the base URL set to anyrouter.top.
Its strengths are real: it costs nothing to try, it speaks the format Claude Code expects, and a community has grown around keeping it running. The weaknesses follow from the same facts.
02Where a free relay costs you
| AnyRouter, 2026-10-27 | RelaySwitch | |
|---|---|---|
| Credit | Sign-up credit, then a daily check-in to keep going (per its listing and the check-in scripts on GitHub) | Prepaid balance from $10; no check-in, no expiry on the days you do not code |
| Capacity | Pooled upstream shared by every account; 429 and 403 are common enough to have their own searches and scripts | Your key, your balance, your own limits; a failed request is not charged |
| Sign-in | GitHub, LinuxDO or email (listing) | An email address; no GitHub, no forum account, no KYC |
| Payment | Pay per token after the credit; see its site | Card, Apple Pay, PayPal, or USDT, USDC, BTC, ETH, SOL |
| Price | On its own pricing page (its listing dated its figures June 2026) | Live per token, under Anthropic's list on 11 of 11 Claude ids today |
| Receipt | Not read | Request id, model, token counts and the USD charge on every request |
AnyRouter column: https://huntifyai.com/tools/anyrouter, https://github.com/topics/anyrouter and https://pi.dev/packages/pi-anyrouter, read 2026-10-27; anyrouter.top itself rendered no readable text that day. RelaySwitch column: the console and the live catalog.
03Every Claude id Claude Code can use here, per million tokens
| Model | Input | Cached | Output | Developer list in / out |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Fable 5.1 | $6.00 (40% under) | $0.15 | $30.00 (40% under) | $10.00 / $50.00 |
| Claude Fable 5 | $3.00 (70% under) | $0.30 | $15.00 (70% under) | $10.00 / $50.00 |
| Claude Opus 5.5 | $2.716 (32% under) | $0.1455 | $9.70 (51% under) | $4.00 / $20.00 |
| Claude Opus 4.6 | $1.80 (64% under) | $0.16 | $7.50 (70% under) | $5.00 / $25.00 |
| Claude Opus 4.7 | $1.80 (64% under) | $0.16 | $7.50 (70% under) | $5.00 / $25.00 |
| Claude Opus 5 | $1.80 (64% under) | $0.16 | $7.50 (70% under) | $5.00 / $25.00 |
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | $0.60 (40% under) | $0.06 | $3.00 (40% under) | $1.00 / $5.00 |
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | $0.60 (40% under) | $0.06 | $3.00 (40% under) | $1.00 / $5.00 |
| Claude Sonnet 5 | $1.20 (40% under) | $0.12 | $3.00 (70% under) | $2.00 / $10.00 |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | $1.20 (40% under) | $0.075 | $3.00 (70% under) | $2.00 / $10.00 |
| Claude Haiku 5.5 | $0.06 (40% under) | $0.01 | $0.15 (70% under) | $0.10 / $0.50 |
The ids that answer the Anthropic Messages format, dearest output first; USD per million tokens, read at render; Anthropic's list where the catalog has it.
04Switching Claude Code takes two lines
AnyRouter users already set ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL and a token. Change the two values:
export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL="https://api.relayswitch.io/v1"export ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN="sk-relay-..."claudeTo make it stick, put them in ~/.claude/settings.json with the three model aliases:
{ "env": { "ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL": "https://api.relayswitch.io/v1", "ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN": "sk-relay-...", "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_OPUS_MODEL": "claude-opus-5-5", "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_SONNET_MODEL": "claude-sonnet-5-5", "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL": "claude-haiku-5-5" }}Inside Claude Code, /status shows the RelaySwitch base URL and the variable that carries the key. The Claude Code guide has the VS Code form, the model aliases and a one-line check that the request landed. A GPT or Gemini id in Claude Code returns a 400; those models run in the OpenAI format through Cursor and the other editors in the guides.
05If "claude routing" was the search
Two different things rank for it. Routing Claude Code to another model is what Claude Code Router and the relays do: a Claude-shaped endpoint in front of whatever is cheap that day. Routing to Claude is what this key does: a Claude id returns that Claude model, served in the Anthropic format, with the model that answered named on the request receipt. For the first kind the open-weight models on the key are their own ids at their own price on the models page; for the second, the table above is the price.
Questions
- What is AnyRouter?
- A hosted relay for Claude Code. The directory listing read on 2026-10-27 describes it as "A Claude Code relay station providing Anthropic-compatible API access to Claude, GPT, and Gemini models", with sign-in by GitHub, LinuxDO or email and a credit for new accounts. The GitHub topic for it is mostly scripts that perform its daily check-in for you across several accounts. Its own site is the source for current terms and quotas.
- Why does AnyRouter return 429 or 403?
- A 429 is a rate limit: a relay serving many accounts from pooled upstream capacity shares one ceiling, and a busy hour hits it. A 403 is a refusal at the door; one of the repositories on its GitHub topic exists to rotate proxy nodes when anyrouter.top answers 403. On RelaySwitch your key has its own balance and its own limits, and a request that fails is not charged.
- Does AnyRouter work with Claude Code?
- That is what it is for: the listing read on 2026-10-27 says to set ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL to anyrouter.top and use an sk- token. RelaySwitch takes the same two variables with its own base URL and key, so switching is two lines.
- Is RelaySwitch free like AnyRouter's check-in credits?
- No. There is no free credit and no check-in. The balance is prepaid from $10 by Card, Apple Pay, PayPal or USDT, USDC, BTC, ETH, SOL, and every turn bills per token ($1.20 in, $3.00 out per million on Claude Sonnet 5.5 today). What you buy is a balance that is there every morning without a ritual.
- Does Claude routing to a cheaper model happen here?
- No. A Claude id returns that Claude model, served in the Anthropic Messages format, and the request receipt names the model that answered. The uncensored and open-weight models on the key are their own ids with their own prices.
- Do I need an account with Anthropic, or identity documents?
- Neither. An email address opens the account, a top-up loads it, and the key is created in the console. Card, Apple Pay, PayPal, USDT, USDC, BTC, ETH, SOL; no phone number, no KYC.
Claude Code on a key that is there every morning
Prepaid from $10 by card or crypto. No check-in, no shared quota, no KYC.