Other than that, API + custom UI seems better since you're paying for the usage instead of competing with other flat-fee users for what seem to be overprovisioned resources (claude.ai was always throwing https 500 or 'sorry we're too busy' errors for me until I switched to API).
Not sure if it's cheaper though - I never checked.
It's insane how bad the first party chat apps are though. That's reason enough to use the API.
incorrect, you can pay per API call instead if you want.
> Pro and Max plan subscribers have access to use Claude Code directly in the terminal.
Claude Code can spend from your API balance, but you still need a subscription to authenticate with the @anthropic-ai/claude-code tool.
Or has that changed and it's not being communicated well here?
https://www.anthropic.com/claude-code explains you can pay per token or pay monthly.
they are definitely not doing a good job on the release - that page doesn't mention Pro including it, and it's not actually available on Pro yet for half a dozen posters on this thread.
I remember needing a subscription just to authenticate with the Claude Code tool (at least when it came out) even though it spends from my API balance kinda felt like a scam.
I wonder how the pricing works out between using Opus in Claude Code pay-as-you-go vs the $100/mo plan. All I remember is easily spending $25 in a Claude Code session if I let the context stay too big. So maybe the sub isn't a bad deal.