Claude Code free tier: what exists, and the $10 route
Claude Code has no free tier: on 2026-10-27 Anthropic's plans page marked it as not included in the Free plan and included in every paid plan. The metered route is the tool on a prepaid key: two environment variables, every Claude model at live prices, from a $10 top-up by card or crypto, no KYC.
The Claude Code free tier, on the plans page
Read on 2026-10-27 at claude.com/pricing. Check the page itself before you decide; plans change.
| Plan | Price, 2026-10-27 | Claude Code |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Not included (marked "No" in the plan table) |
| Pro | $20 a month billed monthly; $17 a month billed annually | Included |
| Max | From $100 a month | Included |
Anthropic's FAQ on the same page: "Claude Code is included in all paid plans." Prices as the page showed them on 2026-10-27; the live page is the source.
So the question "can you use Claude Code for free" has two honest answers. On Anthropic's plans: no. On the tool itself: Claude Code is free to install, and it reads its endpoint and key from two environment variables. Point those at a prepaid key and the only cost is the tokens each turn sends, at the rates below.
Claude Code on a prepaid key, two variables
No plan, no monthly fee. The tool stays the same; the key behind it is RelaySwitch's, and every turn bills to a balance you load by card or crypto.
export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL="https://api.relayswitch.io/v1"export ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN="sk-relay-..."claudeANTHROPIC_BASE_URL points Claude Code here; ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN carries your key. The setup guide has the settings.json and VS Code forms, the model aliases and a check that the request landed.
- An email address opens the account. No Anthropic account, no phone number, no identity documents.
- A top-up from $10 by Card, Apple Pay, PayPal, or USDT, USDC, BTC, ETH, SOL. Nothing recurs.
- A key, with a monthly spend limit if you want one. Set the two variables and run
claude.
Install Claude Code from Anthropic's docs; the tool is the same binary either way.
Every Claude model Claude Code can use, per million tokens
The ids that answer the Anthropic Messages format, read from the catalog at render, with Anthropic's list beside ours where it is on record.
| Model | Input | Cached input | Output | List in / out | Under list |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Fable 5.1claude-fable-5.1 | $6.00 | $0.15 | $30.00 | $10.00 / $50.00 | 40% |
| Claude Fable 5claude-fable-5 | $3.00 | $0.30 | $15.00 | $10.00 / $50.00 | 70% |
| Claude Opus 5.5claude-opus-5-5 | $2.716 | $0.1455 | $9.70 | $4.00 / $20.00 | 51% |
| Claude Opus 4.6claude-opus-4-6 | $1.80 | $0.16 | $7.50 | $5.00 / $25.00 | 70% |
| Claude Opus 4.7claude-opus-4-7 | $1.80 | $0.16 | $7.50 | $5.00 / $25.00 | 70% |
| Claude Opus 5claude-opus-5 | $1.80 | $0.16 | $7.50 | $5.00 / $25.00 | 70% |
| Claude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5 | $0.60 | $0.06 | $3.00 | $1.00 / $5.00 | 40% |
| Claude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 | $0.60 | $0.06 | $3.00 | $1.00 / $5.00 | 40% |
| Claude Sonnet 5claude-sonnet-5 | $1.20 | $0.12 | $3.00 | $2.00 / $10.00 | 70% |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5claude-sonnet-5-5 | $1.20 | $0.075 | $3.00 | $2.00 / $10.00 | 70% |
| Claude Haiku 5.5claude-haiku-5-5 | $0.06 | $0.01 | $0.15 | $0.10 / $0.50 | 70% |
11 of 11 rows carry Anthropic's list price in the catalog. Claude Code reuses its context between turns, so most input on a long session bills at the cached rate.
A coding day on each model, at today’s prices
The shape: 3.0M input tokens, 70% of them cache hits, and 150K output tokens. About 120 turns of a real session with files in context.
| Model | A coding day | Days per $10 | A month of 20 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 5.5 | $0.10 | 102.6 | $1.95 |
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | $1.12 | 9.0 | $22.32 |
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | $1.12 | 9.0 | $22.32 |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | $1.69 | 5.9 | $33.75 |
| Claude Sonnet 5 | $1.78 | 5.6 | $35.64 |
| Claude Opus 4.6 | $3.08 | 3.2 | $61.62 |
| Claude Opus 4.7 | $3.08 | 3.2 | $61.62 |
| Claude Opus 5 | $3.08 | 3.2 | $61.62 |
| Claude Opus 5.5 | $4.20 | 2.4 | $84.10 |
| Claude Fable 5 | $5.58 | 1.8 | $111.60 |
| Claude Fable 5.1 | $10.21 | 1.0 | $204.30 |
Computed at render from the live rates; your own sessions will differ with repo size and turn count. Cached input at the cached rate where the catalog has one, else at the input rate.
Put differently: a $20 month on Anthropic's Pro plan buys 11.9 such days on Claude Sonnet 5.5 here, 205.1 on Claude Haiku 5.5, or 4.8 on Claude Opus 5.5, with no cap on the session clock and nothing billed on the days you do not code.
The free tools, on the same key
If the search was for a coding agent that costs nothing to install, these do, and each runs on any model in the catalog.
OpenCode
Setup on the key, in the guide.
Cline
Setup on the key, in the guide.
Roo Code
Setup on the key, in the guide.
Kilo Code
Setup on the key, in the guide.
Each takes the OpenAI chat format, so the open-weight models on the key run in them at their own per-token price. The models page has every rate.
Claude Code free tier: questions
The plans page, the limits and the cheapest real route.
Claude Code from a $10 top-up
Two environment variables and a prepaid key. Every Claude model at live prices, by card or in USDT, USDC, BTC, ETH, SOL. No KYC, no subscription.