Claude without a subscription: pay for what you actually use

Claude is one of the most capable AI assistants available today, and for many people it has quietly become an everyday tool. It drafts emails, summarizes documents, translates texts, and explains complicated things in plain language. The catch is the price of entry. Claude Pro costs $20 a month everywhere, and there is no lighter tier below it. If you use AI occasionally — a few questions a week rather than a few hours a day — a subscription is an awkward fit.

There is another way to use Claude: pay as you go.

Why a monthly plan doesn't suit everyone

Twenty dollars a month is $240 a year, whether you open the chat every day or twice a month. For someone who works with AI constantly, that can be a fair deal. For everyone else, the math is less kind.

Picture a typical light user. On Monday you ask Claude to polish a letter to a client. On Thursday you need a quick translation. The following week you want a packing list for a trip and a caption for a social media post. That is perhaps four sessions in two weeks — and with a subscription, you have paid for all the days in between.

Anthropic does not offer a cheap tier. It is the full plan or nothing. Which is exactly why a pay-per-request model makes sense for occasional use.

Pay-as-you-go Claude: how it works

Gluboko is an AI aggregator: one chat that gives you access to top models from Anthropic and OpenAI. There is no subscription and no recurring charge. Instead, you top up a wallet and each request deducts a small amount — you pay only for what you use.

The service opens in a regular browser on any device, with nothing to install. It also works from Russia without a VPN, which matters to part of its audience. The wallet is denominated in rubles, and you top it up with a bank card, starting from 50 ₽ — a small amount, not a monthly commitment.

Three Claude models, three price levels

Instead of one flat plan, you choose the model that fits the task:

Claude Opus 5 — the smartest of the three. Use it for complex analysis, long documents, and writing where every sentence matters.
Claude Sonnet 4.6 — the balanced option for everyday work: client emails, meeting summaries, translations, blog posts.
Claude Haiku 4.5 — fast and cheap. Quick questions, rewording a paragraph, drafting a simple plan.

This is the practical advantage over a subscription: you are not paying flagship prices for tasks a lighter model handles perfectly well. A grocery-list question goes to Haiku for next to nothing; a contract summary goes to Opus and still costs only a few rubles.

What a question actually costs

A simple question on one of the cheaper models costs well under one ruble — less than a cent in dollar terms. Even on the smartest models, a typical request comes to a few rubles. Exact amounts depend on the length of your question and the answer, but the scale stays the same: single requests are priced in small change, not in monthly fees.

Compare that with the subscription route. To use Claude without the Pro plan, you would normally have no middle ground at all. Here, a 50 ₽ top-up is enough to work with Claude for quite a while at a light pace — and when the balance runs out, nothing renews automatically. You decide if and when to top up again.

GPT models in the same wallet

The same balance also covers OpenAI's lineup: GPT-5.6 Sol (the flagship), GPT-5.6 Terra (strong and cheaper), GPT-5.5 Pro for deep reasoning on hard problems, and GPT-5 mini and GPT-5.4 nano as the cheapest options. You can ask the same question to Claude and GPT, compare the answers, and settle on the model that suits how you work — all without juggling separate accounts or plans.

More than a chat

Gluboko is built around the chat, but it goes further:

Image studio — generation with GPT Image 1.5, GPT Image Mini, Nano Banana 2, Flux 2 Pro for photorealism, Ideogram 3.0 for text on images, and Recraft V4 for design assets.
Banner maker — creatives for social media.
Presentation maker — builds slide decks and exports them as .pptx files.
File attachments — send images, PDF, TXT, CSV, and DOCX files into the chat for Claude to read.
Voice input — dictate instead of typing.
Web search — the assistant can search the web and cite its sources with links.

Bonuses that lower the entry cost

New users receive a welcome bonus at signup, so the first questions are covered before you spend anything. Your first top-up comes with an extra 10% added to the balance. And there is a referral program: share your personal link, your friend gets a bonus when they sign up, and you receive 15% of every top-up they make, credited to your balance.

How to start

You do not even need an account to look around. A guest can ask a few questions for free, straight from the browser. If it feels useful, sign up to claim the welcome bonus, top up from 50 ₽ with a card, pick a Claude model, and continue where you left off.

FAQ

Do I need a subscription or a saved card? No. There is no subscription and nothing charges automatically. You top up the balance manually whenever you choose, and you only ever spend what you have added.

Which Claude model should I choose? Start with Claude Sonnet 4.6 for everyday tasks. Switch to Haiku 4.5 when speed and low cost matter most, and to Opus 5 for the hardest work — long documents, careful analysis, important writing.

Can I try it before paying? Yes. A guest can ask a few questions for free without registering, and signing up adds a welcome bonus on top.

Open Gluboko in your browser, ask your first question as a guest, and see whether pay-as-you-go Claude fits the way you work — trying it is free.