Ask HN: Optimizing Claude Code Workflow: Subscription or API Billing?
Right now I use Claude Code in terminal with an API key and spend about $150–300/month.
My February usage looked like:
- Haiku: 300M tokens in, 2M out (~$60)
- Sonnet 4.5: 100M in, 1M out (~$75)
- Sonnet 4.6: 20M in, 300k out (~$20)
Most of my work is with Haiku. I mainly use it for simple tasks such as small customizations for a customer or basic feature additions.
My workflow is simple. I stay in the terminal and pass context with things like `@file1` and `@file2`. For database work/references I query things in pgAdmin and paste output into the session.
I’ve had people say the Pro/Max subscriptions are cheaper and still include Claude Code, but I don’t understand what actually changes in practice. Claude Code can authenticate either with a Claude account or an API key, and if `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` is set it will bill the API instead of the subscription, I believe.
If you use the subscription with Claude Code:
- Is the terminal workflow basically identical?
- Do you still just run `claude` and use `@files` the same way?
- Do you run into any annoying limits (context or monthly)?
Trying to understand whether switching from API to a subscription would change anything for someone who already works in the terminal. I'm also curious if I could have greater stronger model usage?