Claude Code agents don't cost anything extra: subagents and skills are part of Claude Code, and their work comes out of the same usage limits as the rest of your Claude plan. What you pay for is the plan. On Claude's pricing page, checked October 31, 2026, Pro is $20 a month billed monthly or $17 a month billed yearly, Max is $100 a month and Ultra is $200 a month. The free plan doesn't include Claude Code at all, so you need at least Pro to build any of this.
Where it really adds up is usage. Every subagent spends from your plan's limits while it works, so running ten at once, or letting a writer and a checker go back and forth forever, eats it a lot faster. That's why the fix loop in my guide stops after two rounds and big jobs go in batches. If you connect other apps through MCP, the standard itself is free, but each of those apps has its own plan. I'd start on Pro, build the one or two agents you'll actually use, and only move up if you keep hitting the limit. My full setup guide for all seven agent types walks through each one.
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