Anthropic Token Margin Threshold

Claude bills by consumption, not seats: Free at $0, Pro at $20 monthly ($17 annual), and the Max plan at $200/mo for 200+ requests per minute. That structure means an agency's gross margin on any Claude-powered retainer is set by token burn, not by headcount. Picture a content agency selling the Claude Starter Content Kit at $1,800 for 16 hours of setup: the build fee is fixed, but every client chat widget reply and every regenerated social post draws on the same API meter. Before quoting a monthly retainer, log a week of real client usage, multiply by the model tier in play, and set the retainer floor above that number. Agencies that skip this step discover the leak in month three, when a chatty client's FAQ widget has quietly eaten the setup fee. Cap usage per client in the contract, then reprice annually against measured burn.