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Comment by lawn | Hacker News Reader

I don't understand why people are using the API pricing instead of the Pro/Max subscriptions? What am I missing?

Enterprise customers don't get that option. But also if you want a fully custom harness, you also don't get that option.

Personally I prefer the API pricing because I feel like I'm not going to get rug pulled on my work. When it comes to personal stuff, I use the shit out of my sub, but it's not making me money.

I’ve made the same argument On Here. Paying the full price (should!) make you consider you usage, pick the right model, delegate to cheaper/local providers, …. It makes you use the models the way they’re going to be used after the subsidy ends.

Depends on what you're optimizing for. I'd hope that "after the subsidy ends", the "cheaper/local providers" will be at the level of at least current SOTA models. If not, then there's hardly a point using them anyway; if yes, then by sticking to subscription workflow you'll be learning the very workflow you'll be using "after subsidy ends".

Either way, I don't see much point of intentional austerity in times of extreme growth. There will be time for austerity once the growth ends.

Anthropic is forcing large enterprises onto api billing instead of subscriptions.

Because with Max subscriptions, you have to use the Claude Agent SDK, which is basically running Claude Code underneath. You don't get to use the chat/Messages APIs with personal subscriptions, for that you need the API pricing.

Terms of service prohibit subscriptions for employees of companies bigger than X people. I suppose they could all sign up as individuals and try to get away with it but presumably that would look pretty obvious with a tiny bit of analytics.

No 5-hourly or weekly limit.

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