Anthropic API vs Temporal
API for Claude — frontier models for chat, tool use, agents, and long-context reasoning
vs. Durable execution platform for mission-critical workflows
Pricing tiers
Anthropic API
Opus 4.7 — usage
Input $5 / output $25 / cache-write $6.25 / cache-read $0.50 per 1M tokens. Batch = 50% off.
Custom
Sonnet 4.6 — usage
Input $3 / output $15 / cache-write $3.75 / cache-read $0.30 per 1M tokens. Batch = 50% off.
Custom
Haiku 4.5 — usage
Input $1 / output $5 / cache-write $1.25 / cache-read $0.10 per 1M tokens. Batch = 50% off.
Custom
Temporal
Self-Hosted (OSS)
Free forever. MIT license. Run the Temporal cluster yourself on K8s/Docker.
$0 base (usage-based)
Cloud (usage-based)
Temporal Cloud. Pay per action ($25 per 1M actions base). Active user + storage also billed.
$0 base (usage-based)
Business Plan
Starts ~$100/mo commit. Multi-region, SSO, priority support.
Custom
Enterprise
Custom. HIPAA, PCI, dedicated clusters, enterprise SLA.
Custom
Free-tier quotas head-to-head
Comparing opus-4-7 on Anthropic API vs oss on Temporal.
| Metric | Anthropic API | Temporal |
|---|---|---|
| discount batch | 50 % off | — |
Features
Anthropic API · 0 features
Temporal · 16 features
- Activities — Retryable units of work.
- Activity Retries — Declarative retry policies.
- Child Workflows — Nested workflow composition.
- Continue-As-New — Close + restart workflow to prune history.
- Nexus (cross-namespace) — Call workflows across namespaces/teams.
- Queries — Synchronous read of workflow state.
- Saga / Compensations — Rollback pattern via compensating activities.
- Schedules — Cron-like recurring workflows.
- Self-Host — Deploy cluster on your infra.
- Signals — Async messages into a running workflow.
- Timers — Durable sleeps — hours, days, months.
- Update — Synchronous RPC into workflow with validation.
- Visibility + Search Attrs — Query workflow state via Elasticsearch/native store.
- Web UI — Inspect workflow history, events, stack.
- Workflows — Durable, replayable, long-running functions.
- Workflow Versioning — Patch workflow code without breaking in-flight runs.
Developer interfaces
| Kind | Anthropic API | Temporal |
|---|---|---|
| CLI | Claude Code CLI | temporal CLI |
| SDK | Go SDK, Java SDK, Python SDK, Ruby SDK, TypeScript SDK (@anthropic-ai/sdk) | Temporal Go SDK, temporalio (Python), @temporalio (TypeScript), Temporal Java SDK, Temporal .NET SDK, Temporal PHP SDK |
| REST | AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex AI, Microsoft Azure AI, REST API (Messages + Agents) | — |
| OTHER | — | Temporal gRPC API, Temporal Web UI |
Staxly is an independent catalog of developer platforms. Outbound links to Anthropic API and Temporal are plain references to their official websites. Pricing is verified against vendor pages at publication time — reconfirm before buying.
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