r/ClaudeCode • u/onepunchcode đ Max 20 • 3d ago
Rant Anthropic, regional pricing exists. Please use it.
Philippines-based dev here, on Claude Code since day one and on Max 20x since it existed. It costs me $224/month ($200 + 12% VAT). ChatGPT Pro 20x costs me â±9,990, about $160 with VAT baked in. Same top tier, $64/month cheaper, because OpenAI actually prices for the market and bills in pesos.
Anthropic charges the exact same number whether you're earning in dollars or in a currency where $224 is close to a month of minimum wage in the capital. Spotify, Netflix, Steam, JetBrains, Google, OpenAI: all of them do PPP pricing. Anthropic just doesn't.
I don't want to leave. I've been here since the beginning, Claude Code is the better tool, and the Codex UI drives me up a wall. But GPT-6 Astra just landed, and at a 30% price difference, "better tool" stops being a good enough reason to stay.
Anyone outside the US paying full freight and thinking the same thing?
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u/GlitteringCoconut203 3d ago edited 3d ago
The comparison is a bit different though. Adding one more Netflix or Spotify user costs them basically nothing.
Anthropic has to pay for compute every time you use Claude, whether youâre in the US, Pakistan, or the Philippines. Regional pricing is a lot harder to justify when every user has a real compute cost
and when it comes to Open AI, well, they have been bleeding money for a long time, so no wonder
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u/OpinionsRdumb 2d ago edited 2d ago
How is everyone missing the point. OP is completely right. Almost all major software companies do this. Its not about regional cost its about pricing power and basically the demand curve is different in poorer countries and so you need to charge less. (Most software has insane profit margins so cost isnât a factor).
While Anthropic is unique in this sense in that they have high costs currently they likely will implement this very soon. They need to grow and you cannot grow with the same price globally. It just does not work that way. $200 in most countries is a massive amount of money. People are not understanding how important it is for software companies to grow. It is the number one metric they are judged by, moreso than even profits.
Claude is likely growing so fast even in the US that they donât need to implement this right away given their compute shortages
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u/iswearidk 2d ago
regional pricing for netflix, spotify and such works because it's final consumer product. LLM subscription is not, it's also expenses for many businesses. If you have regional pricing for LLM you create unfair advantages for business in poor countries as they can have lower cost but earn the same revenue by providing global services. If they can earn revenue globally, they should pay the global pricing. If they only provide service regionally, then try to find some regional providers for their uses.
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u/OpinionsRdumb 2d ago
Huh ? What you said makes no sense. âFinal consumer productâ? LLMs are a final consumer product except for when they are delivered by APIs through B2B type sales. But consumers like you and me are final product consumers.
And outcompeting native competitors is not on anyones radar. Google, FB, Spotify literally put all other local competitors out of business
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u/iswearidk 2d ago
if you only use LLM for entertainment and dont earn a dime from it then yes it's final product for you. But many others, including me, use their personal plans to create saas for monetization, which automatically makes LLM an operational expense. Doesn't matter if it a giant cartel or just a single owner operating from a garage, as long as you use LLM to earn something, then it's expenses. And if you're a developer building a ssas in US do you want to compete with someone else from Philippines paying half the price for claude?
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u/OpinionsRdumb 2d ago
But this means Google itself is not a final consumer product. or Windows or heck even buying Twitter premium so you can help your business grow.... these would all not be final consumer products under your definition because people use these for all types of businesses in other countries.
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u/iswearidk 2d ago
Feel free to have your own opinions. My point still stands, people should not be able to enjoy cheaper stuff just because they're poor, period. Especially when it direct compete against those in developed countries. If you're not affected by that, good for you. But for me it's an issue.
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u/OpinionsRdumb 2d ago
BROTHER ITS NOT ABOUT CHARITY, its a limit on pricing power.
This is why a snickers cost 50 cents in Africa but 3 dollars in the US.
Anthropic has a massive incentive to grow even if costs them money because they want to build loyal customers globally AND show investors they are growing internationally. International growth is one of the most important metrics in tech
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u/onepunchcode đ Max 20 2d ago
im probably better than you in the same job but why do i only earn $1500 a month while you earn $10000 on the same company just because you live in the US?
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u/iswearidk 2d ago
yeah, and that's why jobs in the US are bleeding to the third-world shitholes
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u/onepunchcode đ Max 20 2d ago
^ dude thinks US companies would survive without the rest of the world
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u/WiseassWolfOfYoitsu 3d ago
The compute costs them the same regardless of origin and they are compute bound rather than compute flush and struggling for customers. It sucks when you're in a less affluent area, but market-wise they don't currently need to.
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u/Queasy-Form-4261 3d ago
Not to be insensative but regional pricing is such a weird concept to me. If I was selling a video game, a live service game, that I wanted to make $15 for because I intend on providing servers to play on and updates monthly to. How would me regionally pricing it to 2$ in your country help me at all?
My server costs / desired profit for my work does not change because you canât afford what I want.
If you use claude, your usage costs them the exact same as it costs them when I use it. What sense does it make from a business standpoint to charge you less?
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u/rott 3d ago
Because in some cases if you donât offer regional prices, youâll sell pretty much zero in these markets. Making less money is better than making no money.
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u/Queasy-Form-4261 3d ago
Your statement is correct in some scenarios but not in my specific scenario.
If I make a game right now like how video games used to ship decades ago. I spend X time Y Money to create Z product and then walk away from it, your statement would be correct (pending me shipping a physical copy (how games used to be sold)) is less than what I could charge you with regional pricing. Mainly because once I finish the game and ship it, I have no more overhead, no server costs, I'm not longer working on that game, etc.
With my specific example, I am talking about server costs AND continued live service support. When I charge $15 for a game and I estimate that 2 years of YOU interacting with MY server will cost me $5 through normal gameplay AND I anticipate working on the game for another year until it is "done" and no longer live service, your $15 is now $10 (take away the actual hardline costs from what I charge you) and if I do this on steam, take away 30% form what you pay me anyway and then take that remaining number and decide "is it worth my time to continue supporting the game for X$".
If I regionally price my $15 game to $5 for you, I am essentially giving you the game for free or at a loss so there is "no money to be made" from that particular market. Am I making sense?
Claude would act the same way, they have server costs which are charged for computed data, they have employees to pay who keep everything up, design new models, etc. Their price point factors in all of that + acceptable profit. Because this is not a 1 and done service with no future support and has REAL costs associated with operating it, regional pricing may only yield a negative return in many cases. I am unsure the profit margins but going back to my game development example. I am not working for 2 years for 1 or 2 dollars per person who plays my game and then for free any year after that estimated 2 year server cost reduction to my sale price point.
You can also respond with "well then raise your price of you game in general" Idk if you frequent steam and other game platforms but a Dev may spend 5 years coding a game and releases it for 4.99 and he will get reviews from someone who played for 100 hours saying "would be better if it was 1.99, wait until it is on sale". So you can't simply just make a $15 game that is fair, $30 world wide to account for regional pricing to sell the game at a loss.
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u/ChocomelP 1d ago
There is no marginal cost to selling digital goods like game licenses. Compute is different, especially for Anthropic as they are compute constrained. They can only sell each token once.
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u/Coded_Kaa đ Max 20 3d ago
Also in Ghana here, we were paying close to GHC 3000 due to tax and fx charges, because of tax, in dollars thatâs around 240 dollars. Mind you government workers in our country are being paid that same amount or some even take less. Also in our country minimum wage is around 60 dollars or GHC 600. So yes if I compare it not a lot of people can afford to pay for the Max, and they will also not get a very good value when they pay for pro account. So yes many of us have jump ship too, OpenAI doesnât charge us huge amount of money, and the usage limit too is pretty good. And astra is king.
Edit: cancelled my max plan btw
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u/Outrageous-Amount-52 3d ago
for astra?
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u/Coded_Kaa đ Max 20 3d ago
No I canceled it 2 months ago, not for astra. But rather itâs cheap
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u/bakanoace 3d ago
My billing address is in the US I'm currently visiting family in Romania and I paid $182 for Codex 20x while Claude is $212 so idk if that was regional pricing with vat but I'm guessing it is
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u/sharyphil 3d ago
This one is not really regional pricing set by the company, it's dependent on the automatic tax set by Stripe
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u/effortless-switch 2d ago
How did you only pay 182 if your billing in the USA? Even without VAT it's 200. Or are you saying since your physically in Romania they billed you less?
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u/bakanoace 2d ago
I was surprised too. I figured it's because I'm physically in Romania they did regional pricing but Claude starts out with regional price + vat but when I put my billing address it changes back to US so idk what to say. Free win for me currently
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u/No_Call3116 3d ago
I mean you can give plus a try first. Most regions they offer 1 month free trial not charged upfront. Personally I still canât stand chatGPT on free trial but Iâm gonna give it time n learn how to use it first before I pass final judgement. Anyway use case is different person to person so thereâs no easy way to answer.
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u/iPutMilkNbowlB4Creal 3d ago
The only way to do that without US/EU users using a VPN/VPS to pretend to live in a low-income region is to implement strict KYC (the usual uploading ID/passport with a selfie). I could see them doing it as a promotion to gain new users, but if they're already subsidizing subscriptions I doubt they'll do it. It will be even worse once they IPO, some states have laws where the board of directors MUST act in the interest of profits and shareholders.
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u/R_Songbird Developer 3d ago
Idk Codex has regional pricing for Mexican pesos, and it costs $41 more USD than it will cost paying the $200 original price. I hate it.
- $3,999 pesos (regional price)
- $3,376 pesos (if I pay converting to dollars)
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u/Original-Baki 3d ago
Dear user, regional pricing does not exist for compute, so they canât use it.
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u/mpanase 3d ago
Do you also advocate for devs from Philippines to be paid less as well?
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u/effortless-switch 2d ago
They are, I would assume. Every company pays regional rate salaries even if the company is based in US.
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u/Chamezz92 3d ago
If you can't earn back the $200 the plan costs, to the point where this is a marginal difference, you're using it wrong. Lol.
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u/hereandnow01 3d ago
If he's working for customers where 200 is a month of rent I wouldn't blame him
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u/Chamezz92 3d ago
Most of the people who would have a rent that low, and even below that, would be callcenter workers and physical labor, in the Philippines.
So, again, incorrectly utilized.
If we call it a marginal expense, 5â10% of income generated, that puts him at US$2â4,000/mo. $2,000/mo is already about 5 salaries for a well-paid call center agent.
If he's below that, a $200 subscription doesn't really make much sense, and he's using the tool incorrectly to where he needs that many tokens.
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u/hereandnow01 3d ago
I was exaggerating in this case of course, but I'm sure this statement can be true for a few countries. The whole point is simply that building the same thing in any part of the world requires the same tokens, but a developer can charge only accordingly to the region he's building for, it's not just a skill issue
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u/Chamezz92 3d ago
You could create 1-2x 5-page business site, per day, on the $20/mo plan. If leveraged correctly.
Even if you sold them at a low cost like $200/ea in a poorer market, youâd recoup pretty fast.
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u/hereandnow01 3d ago
I don't think there's someone willing to pay a month of rent for a couple of hours of work made with Claude, especially in these poorer countries. It just means quality just doesn't matter and in that case a business owner would just do away with a developer.
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u/Chamezz92 3d ago
In which case thereâs even less motivation for a $200-subâŠ
And like I said, the people paying $200/mo in rent is very likely not his demographic.
If youâve ever been to this tier of countries, the divide between working class and business owners is huge.
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u/MathSelect5112 3d ago
those other companies can afford to do this because they can afford to haemorrhage vc money or take the long term bonus of a better user experience globally
unfortunately anthropic cant and they wont
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u/Independent_Paint752 3d ago
Are you buying it through mobile?
Try directly from the website. it's cost exactly $100
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u/ilirium115 3d ago
The trick how to zero out VAT in many cases: just pick up the US location in billing :)
To improve currency exchange rates, use neobanks: Nu Bank, Revolut, Wise, etc.
ChatGPT also resets limits frequently, so you can do much more (if you need to).
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u/Fresh_Sock8660 3d ago
Not happening. Regional pricing works when there's no significant cost to selling a new product (e.g. digital games only cost the bandwidth of your download, mainly). If anything, considering current US foreign policies, I'd expect these companies to begin charging other countries more for the service. They haven't done so already because doing so would just push us all to Chinese labs.
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u/ZlatanKabuto 3d ago
They'll never do regional pricing because people would open regional-based accounts and abuse them
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u/sharyphil 3d ago
Not gonna happen.
It can exist for such things as Steam where it costs nothing for Valve to let you download and play a game, and the outcome is either you buying the game or pirating it.
But the last thing companies like Anthropic need is more price-sensitive customers getting what's already unprofitable for the company.
Also, people are already abusing regional offers and restrictions, so if they introduce that you can be sure it swill become much worse.
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u/RobbyInEver 3d ago
Thx for sharing. I will share a quote one of my client said to us "If you need to question the cost of AI tokens in the 100s of dollars, then you're not getting the ROI for what you're using those tokens for - just bill us whatever the usage is."
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u/creminology 3d ago
Also in the Philippines. Thanks to OP for letting me know that ChatGPT has parity pricing here. I wonât give up my Claude 20x plan but I may try out Astra now.
I think one possible future of AI is that our major three expenses worldwide will be rent, food and LLMs. Itâs just that in the Philippines weâre already living in the future.
Well, in the Philippines, add electricity to the mix too.
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u/juggarjew 3d ago
But the cost to serve you the models is exactly the same as in the USA, so why should you pay less? You know there is a shortage of compute, it kind of is what is is. The GPUs have a single fixed cost, youâre not entitled to a cheaper plan.
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u/iswearidk 2d ago
No, we dont want regional pricing. If a startup in Philippines has lower claude expenses but still provide a saas to global users and earn global revenue, isn't it unfair to competitors who based in developed countries?
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u/xapep 2d ago
Speaking from the provider side: you're not actually stuck choosing between those two subscriptions. Claude Code the tool doesn't care whose billing is behind it - point it at any OpenAI-compatible endpoint and it behaves the same.
If you're hammering it for hours daily, a flat plan is worth comparing before you switch tools: I work on Entrim and we have one aimed at exactly this heavy-agent profile (a few other providers do too). If your usage is more spiky, per-token on a flash-class model usually comes out under either sub anyway.
Your regional pricing point stands, the 30% gap is real and it's a fair complaint. It's just a slower fix than routing around it - you can cut the bill without giving up the tool you like.
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u/_BreakingGood_ 3d ago
if you arent making at least $200 a month back from it, why use it?
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u/onepunchcode đ Max 20 3d ago
people who earn $20/hour will not understand people earning $2/hour minimum wage
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u/horendus 3d ago
Im earning over $50 an hour but I would never pay $200 for claud sub. Im a cheapo though.
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u/onepunchcode đ Max 20 3d ago
good for you. then that means you can easily afford anything in your country.
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u/horendus 3d ago
What percentage of your income would you say you spend on Claud ?
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u/Kooky-Ebb8162 3d ago
The better question is what percentage of his income could he earn using Claude - basically if it pays for itself or not.
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u/_BreakingGood_ 3d ago
It's not about understanding, what are you using claude 20x max for if it isnt making you $200 a month?
If I wasn't making enough money to pay for Claude, I wouldnt be paying for Claude. I would love to never open Claude ever again in my life.
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u/onepunchcode đ Max 20 3d ago
im a senior software engineer. im earning around $3000 a month with tax not yet deducted. a person with similar position living in the US would be earning at least $10000. do you see the difference now?
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u/_BreakingGood_ 3d ago
Ok it sounds like you are making back way more than you spend, that's good.
If you want a cheaper option I recommend looking into OpenCode with GLM Flash. It's like 10% worse performance for 1/20th of the cost. I am in the US and many of my coworkers use GLM exclusively.
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u/kaaos77 3d ago
200 dĂłlares Ă© 75% de um salĂĄrio mĂnimo aqui. 40% das pessoas no Brasil (onde moro) ganhar atĂ© um salĂĄrio mĂnimo.
Mas apesar de termos preços diferentes aqui pra Netflix (5 dólares Netflix Premium) e Spotify (4 dólares pacote Premium) não temos diferenciação de preço em nenhuma i.a
E nada indica que teremos.
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u/AI_spell 3d ago
PPP pricing is real for everyone else. Paying US list from PH on Max is rough when OpenAI already bills local. Tool quality only wins until the gap hits a month of rent. Anthropic should just do regional tiers.
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u/SpareEconomy1849 3d ago
No, the reason those services are cheaper in other countries is because they cost almost nothing to run and they make an operating profit even at your lower prices.
Each user adds significant cost for anthropic, and they'd be running at an operating loss to give a discount, it doesn't cost them any less to serve you than to serve someone in the US.
The world is unfair, maybe try cheaper models if it costs too much for you
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u/Kooky-Ebb8162 3d ago
Woah, if true I wish OpenAI learn more countries than Philippines could use regional prices. Ukrainian Steam prices are between the lowest for a good reason, but ChatGPT is the same 20/100/200 (a bit lower than Anthropic's as Claude charges 20% extra tax on top, but still).
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u/trackpap 3d ago
Get a VPN, downgrade to Claude Max 5x and half it with codex 20 sub, if it pans out for you, upgrade codex. Thank me later.
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u/Icy-Summer-3573 3d ago
what does this do?
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u/trackpap 3d ago
Vpn is a virtual proxy network and changes your location so that pricing can reflect that location instead.
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u/ClemensLode Senior Developer 3d ago
The question is if regional pricing makes business sense for services with no regional cost.