The question comes up constantly, and the answer depends on how you work. Here are the options by number and by scenario.
Which Claude subscriptions exist
Claude has four plan lines: Free (no charge, tight limits), Pro, Max and Team. Claude Code is available on Pro, Max, Team and, separately, through the API. There is no subscription for Claude Code alone.
Claude Code runs on Pro at 20 dollars a month, on Max at 100 or 200 dollars, and on pay-per-token billing through the API. Teams get Team: Standard from 25 dollars a seat and Team Premium at 125 dollars a seat, with a minimum of two seats (prices at the time of writing, per claude.com/pricing).
A subscription gives you limits that refresh on a schedule. The API charges exactly what you consumed.
Claude Pro: pricing, payment and what is included
Pro opens the paid line: Claude in the browser, in the app and, within limits, in Claude Code. You pay Anthropic directly by card, monthly or yearly at a discount. From Russia the card fails, more on that below.
How much does a Claude AI subscription cost
Subscriptions only, without the API: Free costs 0 dollars, Pro 20 dollars a month, Max 100 or 200 dollars a month depending on the tier. Team starts at 25 dollars a seat a month on Standard and is 125 on Premium. These are prices as of writing, so check Anthropic's official pricing page for current ones.
Where a subscription wins
A subscription wins on steady daily load. If you sit in Claude Code a few hours every working day and only now and then hit a limit, a fixed sum is predictable and usually cheaper.
There is a second benefit: you stop thinking about spend. That costs money and saves attention.
Where pay-per-token wins
There are three scenarios in which a subscription nearly always loses.
Spiky load. Two intense weeks, then a quiet month. A subscription bills in full, used or not.
Automation and background jobs. An agent in CI, nightly runs, queue processing. Nobody sits at the keyboard, and subscription limits are designed around a person.
Several projects or clients. Spend has to be split, and a subscription is not built for that. On tokens you simply issue a separate key and see spend per key.
The trap nobody talks about
A subscription is bounded by limits, and when they run out the work stops. They tend to run out when a task has turned hard, which is the worst possible moment.
Pay-per-token has no such cliff: the only bound is your own balance, and you can see it coming.
Working it out for your case
Take a real week of yours and estimate the token volume. Our site has a calculator with presets for typical scenarios: a Claude Code session, a day of agent work, a team of five. The presets are editable, so use your own numbers.
Then compare the result with the fixed subscription sum. The line usually falls where you work fewer than four days a week or, the other way round, run automation around the clock.
A note on Russia
Paying for a subscription directly with a Russian card does not work: the payment is cut off at the BIN level. So a Russian developer often chooses not between subscription and API, but between a foreign card with all its risks and paying for tokens through a gateway that takes rubles.
At codexkey tokens are paid through SBP, card, MTS (the Russian mobile operator) or crypto. No Anthropic account is needed, and the minimum top-up is one dollar.
The detailed Russian calculation, with numbers by usage scenario, is in Claude subscription or Claude API: what is cheaper in Russia.
FAQ
Claude subscription: how many options are there and which to choose?
Five: Free, Pro, Max, Team and pay-per-token API billing. Free and Pro suit occasional or light use, Max heavy daily load in Claude Code, Team groups that want shared billing. If your load is uneven or it is automation, paying per token comes out cheaper.
Where do I start if I want to buy Claude?
You cannot buy Claude directly from Russia: a Russian bank card is declined at Anthropic's payment step. What works is to register at codexkey, top up the balance in rubles and get an API key sk_cdx_.... It connects Claude Code, Cursor and your own scripts through one environment variable.
Does a developer need a Claude Max subscription?
Only if you spend many hours every day in Claude Code and regularly hit Pro limits. In other cases the overpayment for Max is usually larger than the bill for the same volume on the API.
Is a Claude Pro subscription enough for development?
For light use, chat and small edits, yes. In daily Claude Code work the Pro limits get tight fast, and then you choose between Max and pay-per-token billing.
In short
Steady daily work with a person at the keyboard points to a subscription. Spiky load, automation and several projects point to tokens. If you are in Russia, add the cost and risk of keeping a foreign card to the calculation.