Cost Management
Last verified: 13 February 2026 | Applies to: Team, Enterprise
In 30 seconds
Section titled “In 30 seconds”Claude costs scale with usage — and not all usage is equal. Cowork sessions consume significantly more than chat. Opus costs more than Sonnet which costs more than Haiku. Team plans have Standard and Premium seat types at very different price points. This page covers practical strategies for managing spend without limiting productivity.
What it does
Section titled “What it does”Understanding usage
Section titled “Understanding usage”Usage on Claude is measured per-message, with consumption varying by:
| Factor | Impact on usage |
|---|---|
| Model | Opus 4.6 > Sonnet 4.5 > Haiku 4.5 |
| Feature | Cowork sessions consume 5-10x what the same task costs in Chat |
| Context length | Longer conversations consume more per message |
| Code execution | Running code uses additional compute |
Seat types (Team plans)
Section titled “Seat types (Team plans)”| Seat type | Cost | Usage allowance | Includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | $25/mo per seat | 1.25x Pro usage | Chat, Cowork, Plugins, Connectors |
| Premium | $125/mo per seat | 6.25x Pro usage | Everything in Standard + Claude Code |
How to optimise
Section titled “How to optimise”Right-size your seats
Section titled “Right-size your seats”Not everyone needs a Premium seat. Map your team to seat types:
- Standard seats: Team members who use Claude for chat, occasional Cowork tasks, and connectors. Good for most knowledge workers.
- Premium seats: Power users who rely heavily on Claude daily, developers using Claude Code, and anyone who consistently hits Standard usage limits.
The cost difference is significant: 3 Standard + 2 Premium seats = $325/mo. 5 Premium seats = $625/mo. Right-sizing saves $300/mo in this example.
Default to the right model
Section titled “Default to the right model”Train your team on when to use which model:
- Haiku for quick questions, simple formatting, and routine lookups
- Sonnet for everyday work — drafting, analysis, most tasks
- Opus only for complex reasoning, long documents, and when Sonnet’s output isn’t good enough
Most teams over-use Opus. Defaulting to Sonnet for everyday work reduces usage without noticeable quality loss for most tasks.
Use Chat when Cowork isn’t needed
Section titled “Use Chat when Cowork isn’t needed”Cowork is powerful but expensive. If the task doesn’t need file access, web browsing, or code execution, do it in Chat.
Use Cowork for: File processing, plugin workflows, multi-step autonomous tasks, working with local data.
Use Chat for: Drafting, brainstorming, analysis of pasted data, one-off questions, document creation via artifacts.
Manage conversation length
Section titled “Manage conversation length”Long conversations consume more usage per message. For cost efficiency:
- Start new conversations for new topics
- Use Projects to maintain context without extending conversations
- Copy key context to a new conversation rather than continuing a 50-message thread
Set team guidelines
Section titled “Set team guidelines”For Team and Enterprise deployments:
- Document model recommendations — which model for which task type
- Share Cowork vs. Chat guidance — when to use each
- Monitor usage patterns — identify power users who might need Premium seats and light users who could move to Standard
- Review monthly — adjust seat types as usage patterns become clear
How operators actually use it
Section titled “How operators actually use it”“We started with everyone on Premium seats. After a month of monitoring, we moved 4 of our 7 team members to Standard — they weren’t using Claude Code or hitting usage limits. Saved us $400/month.”
“I created a simple internal guide: ‘Use Sonnet unless you need Opus. Use Chat unless you need files. Start new conversations instead of extending old ones.’ Usage dropped 30% with no complaints about quality.”
Related
Section titled “Related”- Choosing a Plan — plan comparison with pricing
- Models — understand the cost/capability trade-off
- Cowork — understand usage implications
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