Original Reddit post

I have been using claude code for a while now, and i am working on a project which requires claude API key and I realised that API is really costly. Especially when the output is huge in terms of total no. Of words for instance take script writing The first test which I ran itself costed me around 1.93 dollars So my question is how do I bring this API Cost down Now I have searched and asked claude itself The suggestions came in like, it asked me to change the effort level for instance from Opus 5.5 high toh medium other than that it asked me to change the model from Opus 5.5 to sonnet 5.5 But the real question here is whether changing the model or the effort level will cause a loss in quality of the output or not? That’s my real concern as i really don’t want the quality to go down So people who have been using API for a long time now please help me and ppl like me by sharing ur API saving hacks, and how do u bring the API Cost down submitted by /u/AA_GIGA

Originally posted by u/AA_GIGA on r/ClaudeCode