LangChain / LangGraph + LangSmith
Building custom, stateful agents in code and tracing, evaluating and deploying them.
verified 2026-11-02
Agent frameworks & automation
Claude Managed Agents
Anthropic's pre-built agent harness on managed infrastructure. Claude can read files, run commands, browse and run code in a hosted sandbox; you call it through the Claude API.
Best for: Running long, asynchronous Claude agents without building your own agent loop or sandbox.
Pricing
| Free tier | No. Pay-as-you-go on the Claude API. |
|---|---|
| Paid plans | Model tokens at standard API rates plus $0.08 per session-hour, counted only while a session is running. Web search $10 per 1,000 searches. US-pinned inference is 1.1x. |
| Maker | Anthropic |
| Source | https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/about-claude/pricing |
| Last verified |
Pros
- No container-hour billing on top of session runtime
- Idle time waiting on you or a tool approval is not billed
- Session budgets can cap spend
Cons
- Beta
- Not ZDR or HIPAA eligible; no Batch API discount
Notable facts
- Anthropic's worked example: a 1-hour Opus 5.5 session with 50k input and 15k output tokens costs $0.58 — source
Alternatives
CrewAI
Orchestrating teams ("crews") of role-based agents in Python.
verified 2026-11-02
OpenAI Agents SDK
A lightweight, code-first way to build multi-agent workflows.
verified 2026-11-02
n8n
Visual workflow automation with AI agents, priced per workflow run, not per step.
verified 2026-11-02
FAQ
Is Claude Managed Agents free?
No. Pay-as-you-go on the Claude API.
How much does Claude Managed Agents cost?
Model tokens at standard API rates plus $0.08 per session-hour, counted only while a session is running. Web search $10 per 1,000 searches. US-pinned inference is 1.1x.
What is Claude Managed Agents best for?
Running long, asynchronous Claude agents without building your own agent loop or sandbox.
Who makes Claude Managed Agents?
Claude Managed Agents is made by Anthropic.
Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we'll re-verify. Facts on this page come only from the linked sources.