Why Your Claude API Bill Is High: Nine Common Causes and Fixes

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Claude API costs often rise because of hidden thinking tokens, which are billed as output even when not displayed, and can be reduced by adjusting the effort setting. Prompt caching may silently fail when the start of a prompt changes between requests, such as through timestamps or reordered keys, and short prompts fall below the minimum cacheable length. Long conversations are costly because the full history is resent on each turn, so caching earlier turns and keeping tool results brief can help. Some charges are avoidable, including fast mode, which doubles the price, and real-time requests that could run through the half-price Batch API. The article advises saving each response's usage block to see where spending occurs, and judging cost by finished tasks rather than by per-request price.

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