How much does an AI coding agent cost per month?

Short answer: on the API, a busy coding agent can cost anywhere from a few dollars to a few thousand dollars a month. The model you choose changes the bill more than anything else. Below are worked examples using our daily-checked prices.

This guide is about paying per token through an API (for example with your own agent, Cline, Aider or an API key in your editor). Subscriptions like Claude Pro or ChatGPT Plus have a fixed price and usage limits instead.

Why coding agents use so many tokens

A coding agent doesn't answer once. For each task it loops: read files, plan, edit, run tests, read the errors, edit again. Every step resends the instructions, the tool list and a growing chunk of code and history. That's why our example uses 15 steps per task and 20,000 input tokens per step, but only 1,500 output tokens: most of the bill is reading, not writing.

The example

• Solo developer: 10 tasks a day.
• Small team: 50 tasks a day.
• Each task: 15 steps, 20,000 input and 1,500 output tokens per step.
• Half of the input is read from the cache (agents repeat a lot of the same context, and most providers cache it).
• 30 days a month, list prices, no cache-write fees.

On Claude Sonnet 5.5, one task in this example costs about $0.540. That's a useful number to compare with what the task is worth to you.

What makes your bill higher or lower

• Repository size and how much the agent reads. Agents that pull whole files or folders into context pay for them on every step.
• Retries. A failed edit that takes three rounds to fix triples the cost of that step.
• Caching. Compare the last two columns: with half the input cached, the bill drops a lot on models with cheap cache reads.
• Reasoning effort. "High" reasoning settings write many hidden thinking tokens, billed as output.

How to keep it under control

1. Start small. Try a mid-priced model on 20 real tasks before defaulting to the most expensive one.
2. Keep sessions short. Start a fresh session for each task, with a short written handoff, instead of one endless chat.
3. Let scripts do fixed work. Formatting, git commands and running tests don't need a model.
4. Cap steps and set a spend limit with your provider, so a loop can't run all night.
5. Log cost per task so you know which kind of task is expensive.

More tips: How to reduce LLM token costs and Prompt caching explained.

Check your own numbers

Change tasks per day, steps and tokens in the calculator. If you use Claude, Cursor or another MCP-capable AI, you can also ask it directly through our free MCP connector, for example: "What would a coding agent on Claude Sonnet 5.5 cost per month?"

Prices are list prices per million tokens from our pricing table (last refresh 2026-11-02); check providers before you commit. This guide was written with help from AI tools and checked by a human. See also: model vs model cost comparisons and recent price changes.