Models & Cost Reference

Summary — what this page covers A keeper page: the current model lineup with per-token pricing, the cost-reduction levers, and a clear map of what genuinely needs paid access versus where a free/local alternative works. Verify the rates against current pricing before the event.

Free-first: default to free/local where possible; pay only where it's genuinely required.

Model lineup & pricing

Per million tokens, input / output. (Verify against current pricing before the event.)

Model	Input / Output (per 1M tokens)	Use for
Claude Haiku 4.5	$1 / $5	High-volume, mechanical work; CI code review
Claude Sonnet 4.6	$3 / $15	Default for app features
Claude Opus 4.8	$5 / $25	Hardest reasoning

Cost-reduction levers

• Prompt caching — up to ~90% off the cached input portion (Section 1).
• Batch processing — ~50% cheaper for non-interactive workloads.
• Model choice — Haiku for CI reviews and mechanical tasks (Section 5).

Paid vs free/local map

Capability	Needs paid?	Free / local alternative
Claude API calls (all sections)	Yes — API key required	Trial credit covers the workshop
RAG embeddings (Section 3)	OpenAI key by default	Ollama + nomic-embed-text (768-dim) behind the same interface
Vector store (Section 3)	No	Qdrant in Docker (local)
Integration test infra (Section 5)	No	TestContainers (local Docker)
Claude Code (Day 1)	Pro min ($20/mo)	— (not on Free)

Remember: a Claude.ai Pro/Max subscription does NOT grant API access. Day 2 runs on the Anthropic API, which is billed separately (pay-as-you-go) — you need a Console key.