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Anthropic

Anthropic is an AI company, set up as a public benefit corporation, that builds the Claude family of large language models. Developers use Claude through the Claude API, Amazon Bedrock or Google Cloud Vertex AI, and people use it through the Claude apps and Claude Code. As of September 2026 the current models are Claude Fable 5.1, Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5 and Haiku 4.5.

By Anthropic PBCPay as you goSince 2021AI Platforms & APIs

Facts checked on against the sources listed at the end of this page.

Pricing
Pay as you goPaid from $20 a month for Claude Pro; API from $1 per million input tokens (Haiku 4.5)
Open source
NoProprietary
GitHub stars
2,132
npm downloads a week
54Mup 16% on the week before
Latest release
google-cloud-s…6 days ago
Releases in 90 days
10about 3 a month

A good fit for

  • Adding a capable language model to a product through an API
  • Coding agents and tools that need long context, such as whole-repository work
  • Teams that already use AWS or Google Cloud and want Claude inside that account
  • Long documents: contracts, research papers and codebases up to 1 million tokens

Not a good fit for

  • Running a model on your own hardware: Anthropic doesn't release open-weight models
  • Image or video generation: Claude reads images but doesn't create them
  • Fixed, predictable costs at high volume: API spend grows with tokens used

Anthropic pricing

The Claude apps have a free plan, Pro at $20 a month ($17 a month billed yearly) and Max from $100 a month. The API is billed per million tokens and depends on the model.

PlanPriceWhat you get
Free$0Chat on web, desktop and mobile, with web search and file creation.
Pro$20 a month, or $17 a month billed yearlyMore usage, Claude Code and more models.
MaxFrom $100 a month5x or 20x the usage of Pro and higher output limits.
Team$25 per seat a month, or $20 billed yearly; premium seats $100Central billing, admin controls and single sign-on.
API: Haiku 4.5$1 input / $5 output per million tokensFastest and cheapest current model.
API: Sonnet 5$2 input / $10 output per million tokensBalanced speed and quality.
API: Opus 5.5$4 input / $20 output per million tokensLong-running coding and knowledge work.
API: Fable 5.1$10 input / $50 output per million tokensMost demanding reasoning and agent work.

Prices in USD, checked on 27 September 2026. Current prices on claude.com.

Main features

Claude API
Messages API with official SDKs, including @anthropic-ai/sdk for TypeScript and anthropic for Python.
Four model tiers
Fable 5.1, Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5 and Haiku 4.5, priced from $1 to $10 per million input tokens.
Long context
Up to 1 million tokens of context and up to 128,000 output tokens on Fable 5.1, Opus 5.5 and Sonnet 5.
Extended and adaptive thinking
Models can reason step by step before answering, with controls for how much effort they spend.
Claude Code
A coding agent that works in the terminal and IDEs. Included with Pro and Max plans.
Available on major clouds
The same models are offered through Amazon Bedrock and Google Cloud Vertex AI.

About Anthropic

Anthropic builds and runs the Claude models. It sells access in two ways: subscription plans for the Claude apps (web, desktop and mobile), and pay-per-token access to the models through the Claude API for developers who build Claude into their own products.

The current lineup has four models at different price and speed points. Claude Fable 5.1 is aimed at demanding reasoning and long-running agent work, Opus 5.5 at long-running coding and knowledge work, Sonnet 5 at a balance of speed and quality, and Haiku 4.5 at speed and low cost. Fable 5.1, Opus 5.5 and Sonnet 5 accept up to 1 million tokens of context; Haiku 4.5 accepts 200,000.

Anthropic is a public benefit corporation. Its stated purpose is the responsible development of advanced AI, and it publishes research on AI safety and interpretability alongside its products.

Made by
Anthropic PBC
Launched
2021
Based in
San Francisco, California
Free plan
Yes, in the Claude apps. The API is billed per token.
Available on
Claude API, Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud Vertex AI, Web, desktop and mobile apps, Claude Code

Usage and activity

Weekly npm downloads of @anthropic-ai/sdk, last 12 months.

020M40M60MOctDecJanMarMayJulOct7 October 2025: 2,406,805 downloads a week14 October 2025: 2,491,652 downloads a week21 October 2025: 2,625,167 downloads a week28 October 2025: 2,714,015 downloads a week4 November 2025: 2,628,774 downloads a week11 November 2025: 2,739,989 downloads a week18 November 2025: 2,887,648 downloads a week25 November 2025: 3,227,228 downloads a week2 December 2025: 2,837,668 downloads a week9 December 2025: 3,407,589 downloads a week16 December 2025: 3,352,903 downloads a week23 December 2025: 3,031,111 downloads a week30 December 2025: 2,055,613 downloads a week6 January 2026: 2,636,993 downloads a week13 January 2026: 3,646,833 downloads a week20 January 2026: 3,671,483 downloads a week27 January 2026: 4,567,710 downloads a week3 February 2026: 5,339,568 downloads a week10 February 2026: 5,958,978 downloads a week17 February 2026: 5,595,592 downloads a week24 February 2026: 6,196,175 downloads a week3 March 2026: 7,034,825 downloads a week10 March 2026: 8,303,139 downloads a week17 March 2026: 8,952,873 downloads a week24 March 2026: 9,430,652 downloads a week31 March 2026: 11,034,230 downloads a week7 April 2026: 12,399,391 downloads a week14 April 2026: 14,514,960 downloads a week21 April 2026: 14,426,224 downloads a week28 April 2026: 16,420,293 downloads a week5 May 2026: 17,930,476 downloads a week12 May 2026: 17,605,954 downloads a week19 May 2026: 18,324,475 downloads a week26 May 2026: 19,840,265 downloads a week2 June 2026: 24,876,835 downloads a week16 June 2026: 23,982,261 downloads a week23 June 2026: 24,049,385 downloads a week30 June 2026: 22,596,335 downloads a week7 July 2026: 23,830,967 downloads a week21 July 2026: 26,939,975 downloads a week28 July 2026: 28,377,250 downloads a week4 August 2026: 30,108,655 downloads a week11 August 2026: 30,414,073 downloads a week25 August 2026: 35,921,466 downloads a week1 September 2026: 38,962,126 downloads a week27 September 2026: 46,425,601 downloads a week4 October 2026: 53,667,933 downloads a week

Recent releases

Anthropic alternatives

All 12 alternatives to Anthropic, side by side

Anthropic compared

Getting started

  1. Create an account in the Claude Console and generate an API key.

  2. Install the TypeScript SDK.

    npm install @anthropic-ai/sdk
  3. Send a first message. The SDK reads the ANTHROPIC_API_KEY environment variable.

    import Anthropic from "@anthropic-ai/sdk";
    
    const client = new Anthropic();
    const msg = await client.messages.create({
      model: "claude-sonnet-5",
      max_tokens: 1024,
      messages: [{ role: "user", content: "Hello, Claude" }],
    });
    console.log(msg.content);

Questions about Anthropic

What are Anthropic's latest Claude models?

As of September 2026 the current models are Claude Fable 5.1, Claude Opus 5.5, Claude Sonnet 5 and Claude Haiku 4.5. Several older models, including Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Opus 4.7, are still available through the API.

How much does the Claude API cost?

It's billed per million tokens. Input costs $1 on Haiku 4.5, $2 on Sonnet 5, $4 on Opus 5.5 and $10 on Fable 5.1; output costs five times the input price on each.

Is Claude free to use?

Yes. The Claude apps have a free plan with web search and file creation. Paid plans start at $20 a month for Pro. The API has no free plan and is billed per token.

Is Claude 3.5 Sonnet still available?

No. Anthropic deprecated both Claude 3.5 Sonnet snapshots on 13 August 2025 and retired them on 28 October 2025. It recommends Claude Sonnet 4.6 or a newer model instead.

Can I use Claude on AWS or Google Cloud?

Yes. Claude models are available through Amazon Bedrock and Google Cloud Vertex AI, billed through your cloud account.

Sources and links

Work on Anthropic? Claim this listing. Something wrong or out of date? Suggest a correction. Stats come from the public GitHub and npm APIs and update every day.

Anthropic: pricing, features and alternatives (2026) | ScratchDB