Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

more context from the claude code team: http://latent.space/p/claude-code

you can skim the transcript but some personal highlights:

- anthropic employees, with unlimited claude, average to $6/day of usage

- headless claude code as a "linux" utility that you use everywhere in CI is pretty compelling

- claude code as a user extensible platform

- future roadmap of claude code: sandboxing, branching, planning

- sonnet 3.7 as a persistent, agentic model



"- anthropic employees, with unlimited claude, average to $6/day of usage"

From the link:

"Apparently, there are some engineers inside of Anthropic that have spent >$1,000 in one day!"

The question is what is the P50, P75, and P95 spend per employee?


Agree. That would be a great insight as well as what type of activities cause the explosion in spend.


they probably wouldnt share so i didnt ask


Maybe I'm holding it wrong, but I can easily spend $20+ using Claude Code for 2 hours. I've stopped using it because it was too expensive for my personal projects.


I briefly commented on how I approach cost control before, if useful.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43737060


But that doesn't really explain things. You're making an active effort to reduce your costs. Anthropic engineers get unlimited API usage for free.

I was listening to this podcast yesterday and I also did a double take when I heard the $6 per day number.


Great advice, thanks.


Claude max plan has Claude code bundled into the price. $100/month isn't cheap, but the RoI is there for me personally.


Thanks, this is helpful. I tried Claude Code, and thought it had a lot of potential, but I was on track to spend at least $20/day.

For a tool that radically increases productivity (say 2x), I think it could still make sense for a VC funded startup or an established company (even $100/day or $36k/year is still a lot less than hiring another developer). But for a side project or bootstrap effort, $36k/year obviously significantly increases cash expenses. $100/month does not, however.

So, I'm going to go back and upgrade to Max and try it again. If that keeps my costs to $100/month, thats a really different value proposition.


Can you clarify what you mean here? Are you saying I can use Claude Code for a flat rate of $100/month? What are the limits? What if I use more than $100 worth of Code in a month? Their website doesn't seem to make it clear.

Edit:

Found the answer to my own questions

> Send approximately 50-200 prompts with Claude Code every 5 hours[1]

Damn. That's a really good deal

[1] https://support.anthropic.com/en/articles/11145838-using-cla...


Really tempted to go for this as well. Only wish I could access flat rate Claude through VS Code Cline (or an extension like it) as well - that would be the complete package. $100 / month + ~$$ / day in API credits is gonna get pricey.


I have been using Claude Code a lot since the Max plan change and I've never hit the limits myself.


Thanks, I was just commenting on "- anthropic employees, with unlimited claude, average to $6/day of usage".


Maybe engineers at Anthropic use it less because they fully understand the limitations and drawbacks


Why not use Claude Max Plan? Starts at $100.


I’ve really enjoyed the recent latent space podcasts. I don’t think there is any person†/podcast (or perhaps other content) approaching your general output while maintaining the high SNR. I am continually amazed at the volume and value of public work you’re producing over the last (half?) decade while still growing various businesses. I hope others can find similar productivity gradients. I know you roughly share what works for you but it is not so easy to reproduce.

† simonw, gwern


thanks man, this was nice to read :) idk if it helps but my principles (tm) are here http://learninpublic.org/

i do feel like SNR * quantity could be higher, but its still a challenge to even keep it where it is today. my work life balance/stress levels aren't the best and everyone expects everything from me.


Agree 100%


How neutral was the podcast vs being a sales pitch for this?




Consider applying for YC's Winter 2026 batch! Applications are open till Nov 10

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: