How popular is Claude Code?

As of Jul 7, 2026, Claude Code routes about 283.3B tokens per day through OpenRouter — the #1 tracked AI coding tool by that measure.

How much does Claude Code cost?

Claude Code's paid plans start at $20/month (Pro), with a free tier available, per its pricing page captured Jul 8, 2026. Plan changes are tracked over time on this page.

When was Claude Code last updated?

The most recent tracked release is v2.1.204 on Jul 8, 2026. Its full changelog history is listed above.

What are the best alternatives to Claude Code?

By OpenRouter usage, the closest alternatives are Kilo Code, Cline, and pi. Head-to-head comparisons are linked in the alternatives table.

ToolsAnthropic

Claude Code

homepage pricing changelog github npm docs

OpenRouter rank

of 16 tracked tools

Tokens / day

283.3B

snapshot Jul 7, 2026

Requests / day

3,638,540

OpenRouter, summed

Usage

OpenRouter token volume

latest Jul 7, 2026

source: OpenRouter app rankings · summed across the tool's apps · daily

283.3B on Jul 7, 2026

Pricing

Subscription plans

Latest captured subscription plans for Claude Code.
Plan	$/mo	$/yr	Notes
Free	$0	$0	Free for everyone · Chat on web, iOS, Android, and desktop
Pro	$20	$200	$17/month price applies with annual subscription, billed as $200 up front · $20 if billed monthly · Includes Claude Code, Claude Cowork, Claude Design, Claude Science · More usage* · Access to unlimited projects
Max	$100	—	Price shown is a starting price 'From $100' · Includes Priority access at high traffic times · Choose 5x or 20x more usage than Pro* · Higher output limits for all tasks
Team	$25	—	$20 per seat/month if billed annually, $25 if billed monthly · Second seat tier: $100 per seat/month if billed annually, $125 if billed monthly (mix and match seat types) · Includes Claude Code, Claude Cowork, Claude Design, Claude Science · Per seat pricing for teams of 5 to 150
Enterprise	$20	—	For large businesses operating at scale · Pricing beyond $20/seat depends on usage and model/task · Contact sales via buying agent chat · Usage cost scales with model and task

source: claude.com/pricing

captured Jul 8, 2026

Change history

no plan changes detected yet — changes appear here the day the pricing page moves

Changelog

Releases

v2.1.204v2.1.204
Jul 8, 2026
- ## What's changed
- Fixed hook events not streaming during SessionStart hooks in headless sessions, which could cause remote workers to be idle-reaped mid-hook
v2.1.203v2.1.203
Jul 7, 2026
- ## What's changed
- Added a warning when your login is about to expire, so you can re-authenticate before background sessions are interrupted
- Added a grey ⏸ badge to the footer when in manual permission mode, making the active mode always visible
v2.1.202v2.1.202
Jul 6, 2026
- ## What's changed
- Added a "Dynamic workflow size" setting in `/config` for controlling how large Claude generally makes dynamic workflows (small/medium/large agent counts) — an advisory guideline, not an enforced cap
- Added `workflow.run_id` and `workflow.name` OpenTelemetry attributes to telemetry emitted by workflow-spawned agents, so a workflow run's activity can be reconstructed from OTel data
v2.1.201v2.1.201
Jul 3, 2026
- ## What's changed
- Claude Sonnet 5 sessions no longer use the mid-conversation system role for harness reminders
v2.1.200v2.1.200
Jul 3, 2026
- ## What's changed
- Changed `AskUserQuestion` dialogs to no longer auto-continue by default; opt into an idle timeout via `/config`
- Changed the "default" permission mode to "Manual" across the CLI, `--help`, VS Code, and JetBrains; `--permission-mode manual` and `"defaultMode": "manual"` are accepted alongside `default`
v2.1.199v2.1.199
Jul 2, 2026
- ## What's changed
- Stacked slash-skill invocations like `/skill-a /skill-b do XYZ` now load all leading skills (up to 5), not just the first
- Fixed SSL certificate errors (TLS-inspecting proxies, missing `NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS`, expired certs) burning retries before showing actionable guidance — they now fail immediately with the fix hint
v2.1.198v2.1.198
Jul 1, 2026
- ## What's changed
- Subagents now run in the background by default, so Claude keeps working while they run and is notified when they finish (previously a gradual rollout)
- Claude in Chrome is now generally available
v2.1.197v2.1.197
Jun 30, 2026
- ## What's changed
- Introducing Claude Sonnet 5: now the default model in Claude Code, with a native 1M-token context window and promotional pricing of $2/$10 per Mtok through August 31. Update to version 2.1.197 for access. https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-sonnet-5
v2.1.196v2.1.196
Jun 29, 2026
- ## What's changed
- Added support for organization default models — admins set it in the org console; it shows as "Org default" (or "Role default") in `/model` when you haven't picked one yourself
- Added readable default names for sessions at start, making them easier to identify and message
v2.1.195v2.1.195
Jun 26, 2026
- ## What's changed
- Added `CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_MOUSE_CLICKS` to disable mouse click/drag/hover in fullscreen mode while keeping wheel scroll
- Fixed hook matchers with hyphenated identifiers (e.g. `code-reviewer`, `mcp__brave-search`) accidentally substring-matching — they now exact-match. Use `mcp__brave-search__.*` to match all tools from a hyphenated MCP server.

source: github.com/anthropics/claude-code/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md

latest Jul 8, 2026

Adoption

GitHub & package growth

GitHub stars

source: github.com/anthropics/claude-code

136,855 stars · Jul 8, 2026

Package downloads/day

source: registry stats · @anthropic-ai/claude-code · 1 zero-day gap hidden

2,049,449/day · Jul 7, 2026

Community

Reddit pulse

30-day · to Jul 8, 2026

Mentions/day

Sentiment split

I’m relying too much on Claude coder/ClaudeCode · 146 pts
Transitioning to Claude Coder/ClaudeCowork · 52 pts
Claude Code wiped my entire production database - Redditr/ · — pts

source: Reddit mentions across coding subreddits · sentiment auto-classified

latest Jul 8, 2026

Benchmarks

Benchmark results

Benchmark scores for Claude Code.
Benchmark	Configuration	Score	Date	Source
no benchmark results attributed to Claude Code yet

scores as published by each benchmark; configurations differ — compare within a row's benchmark only

Alternatives

Similar tools

Alternatives to Claude Code by OpenRouter usage-rank proximity.
#	Tool	Tokens/day	7d Δ	Head-to-head
3	Kilo CodeKilo Code	252.2B	—	vs Claude Code
5	ClineCline Bot Inc.	96.2B	67.9%	vs Claude Code
7	piEarendil Works (Mario Zechner)	50.8B	—	vs Claude Code
18	CursorAnysphere	12.6B	—	vs Claude Code

ranked by OpenRouter usage-rank proximity

snapshot Jul 7, 2026

FAQ

Claude Code FAQ

How popular is Claude Code?: As of Jul 7, 2026, Claude Code routes about 283.3B tokens per day through OpenRouter — the #1 tracked AI coding tool by that measure.
How much does Claude Code cost?: Claude Code's paid plans start at $20/month (Pro), with a free tier available, per its pricing page captured Jul 8, 2026. Plan changes are tracked over time on this page.
When was Claude Code last updated?: The most recent tracked release is v2.1.204 on Jul 8, 2026. Its full changelog history is listed above.
What are the best alternatives to Claude Code?: By OpenRouter usage, the closest alternatives are Kilo Code, Cline, and pi. Head-to-head comparisons are linked in the alternatives table.

Alerts

Track Claude Code

Email me when Claude Code's pricing or plans change, or a new release ships.