This article explains how usage-based billing works for Enterprise plans on Claude and how to manage your organization's usage and spending.
Note: Usage-based billing is available only for Enterprise plans.
How usage-based billing works
Instead of paying a fixed monthly fee that includes a set amount of usage per seat, you pay a base seat fee plus actual usage costs drawn from a shared organizational pool.
Seat types
Enterprise plans offer two seat types:
Seat type | Includes |
Chat | Claude chat, file creation, code execution, base enterprise admin features (per-seat limits, dashboards, compliance API) |
Chat + Claude Code
| Everything in base seat plus full Claude Code access and enterprise features |
Note: HIPAA-ready Chat seats are available for Enterprise plans at an additional cost. Click here or contact our Sales team to learn more.
Consumption billing
All usage across your organization draws from a shared token pool:
Pooled usage: All users share one organizational token pool rather than individual allocations.
No waste: Tokens can be used by any team member, eliminating unused individual allocations.
Usage-based billing: Costs scale with actual consumption at API pricing rates.
Spend controls: Admins can set spending caps at the organization, seat tier, and individual user levels.
Usage is billed monthly in arrears based on actual consumption during the billing period.
Setting up your organization
Assigning seat types to members
To assign members to a specific seat type:
Find the member you want to configure.
Click the dropdown menu under Seat Tier.
Select the appropriate seat type (Chat or Chat + Claude Code).
The change saves automatically.
Configuring spend limits
Set spending controls to manage your organization's consumption:
Sign in as an Owner or Primary Owner.
Navigate to Admin settings > Usage.
Configure spending limits at one or more levels:
Organization level: Maximum monthly spend for all usage across your organization
Seat tier level: Controls spending for all users of a particular seat type
Individual level: Specific spending limits for individual users
These limits work hierarchically—users cannot exceed their individual limits, seat tier limits, or the organization limit.
Managing usage and costs
Monitoring usage
Track your organization's consumption through:
The Spending caps by user section in Admin settings > Usage to view month-to-date spending for each member
Monthly invoices showing detailed usage per user
Spend limit notifications when users approach their thresholds
Usage pricing
Usage is billed at standard API rates. Input and output costs by model:
Model | Input | Output | Prompt caching (Write) | Prompt caching (Read) |
Opus 4.5 | $5 MTok | $25 / MTok | $6.25 / MTok | $0.50 / MTok |
Haiku 4.5 | $1 / MTok | $5 / MTok | $1.25 / MTok | $0.10 / MTok |
Sonnet 4.5 | $3 / MTok (≤200K tokens)
$6 / MTok (>200K tokens) | $15 / MTok (Prompts ≤ 200K tokens)
$22.50 / MTok (Prompts > 200K tokens) | $3.75 / MTok (Prompts ≤ 200K tokens)
$7.50 / MTok (Prompts > 200K tokens) | $0.30 / MTok (Prompts ≤ 200K tokens)
$0.60 / MTok (Prompts > 200K tokens) |
Opus 4.1 | $15 / MTok | $75 / MTok | $18.75 / MTok | $1.50 / MTok |
Sonnet 4 | $3 / MTok (Prompts ≤ 200K tokens)
$6 / MTok (Prompts > 200K tokens) | $15 / MTok (Prompts ≤ 200K tokens)
$22.50 / MTok (Prompts > 200K tokens) | $3.75 / MTok (Prompts ≤ 200K tokens)
$7.50 / MTok (Prompts > 200K tokens) | $0.30 / MTok (Prompts ≤ 200K tokens)
$0.60 / MTok (Prompts > 200K tokens) |
Opus 4 | $15 / MTok | $75 / MTok | $18.75 / MTok | $1.50 / MTok |
Haiku 3.5 | $0.80 / MTok | $4 / MTok | $1 / MTok | $0.08/ MTok |
Note: While prompt caching may optimize costs automatically in certain contexts, your actual charges will be based on the tokens consumed during your Claude and Claude Code usage at these published rates.
FAQs
What happens if I reach my consumption limit?
If you exceed your organization or individual consumption limit, you won't be able to use Claude or Claude Code again until one of the following happens:
The next billing period begins
An admin increases your limits
Can I use consumption across both Claude and Claude Code?
Yes, your consumption budget applies to both products. Chat + Claude Code seat holders can use their allocation across:
Claude on web, desktop, and mobile
Claude Code in the terminal
How do I monitor my organization's usage?
Navigate to Admin settings > Usage
View real-time consumption dashboards showing:
Organization-wide usage
Usage by seat type
Individual member consumption
Trends and forecasts
Can admins set spend caps?
Yes. Admins will be able to set the below caps:
Org-wide caps
Caps per seat tier
Caps per individual
What is the hierarchy for spend caps?
Organization-level caps get the highest priority.
Can I disable consumption tracking entirely?
Owners can set limits to "unlimited," but consumption will still be billed. You cannot disable billing for usage—usage-based pricing is core to the Chat and Chat + Claude Code seat models.
What if I need to upgrade a seat to Chat + Claude Code?
Find the member to upgrade
Click the seat type dropdown
Select "Chat + Claude Code"
Confirm the billing impact
The additional per month SaaS fee applies immediately (prorated), and the member gains access to Claude Code and higher usage guidance.