Anthropic API Setup Guide

Getting Your Anthropic API Key

Step 1: Create an Anthropic Account

1. Visit console.anthropic.com 
2. Click “Sign Up” or “Get Started”
3. Complete the registration process with your email

Step 2: Add Credits

You’ll need to purchase $5 worth of credits (the Anthropic minimum) to start using the API. Navigate to your account dashboard and add credits to your account.

Step 3: Generate API Key

1. Go to your account dashboard and click on the “API Keys” tab
2. Click on the “Create New API Key” button to generate a new API key
3. Copy and securely store your API key (starts with sk-ant-)

Available Claude Models

Anthropic offers several Claude models through their API:

Claude 4 Family (Latest)

• claude-sonnet-4-20250514 - Claude Sonnet 4: Smart, efficient model for everyday use
• claude-opus-4 - Claude Opus 4: Most capable model for complex tasks

Claude 3.5 Family

• claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022 - Latest Claude 3.5 Sonnet
• claude-3-5-haiku-20241022 - Fast and efficient model

Claude 3 Family

• claude-3-opus-20240229 - Most capable Claude 3 model
• claude-3-sonnet-20240229 - Balanced performance and speed
• claude-3-haiku-20240307 - Fastest and most cost-effective

Key Features

• Advanced reasoning and analysis capabilities
• Large context windows (up to 200K tokens)
• Multimodal capabilities (text and images)
• Strong safety and alignment features

Pricing

• Pay-per-token usage model
• Different rates for input and output tokens
• Monitor usage in the Anthropic Console

Security Tips

• Keep your API key secure and never share it publicly
• If compromised, immediately rotate your key in the Console