ProxyAPI vs LiteAI — which one for Claude API in 2026: pricing, models, payments

Based on Yandex Wordstat data (Sept 17, 2026 snapshot, last 30 days, Russia), the ProxyAPI query cluster is stable and mostly navigational:

Phrase	Monthly searches
proxyapi	995
proxyapi ru	173
api proxyapi	29
https proxyapi ru	27
proxyapi промокод (promo code)	14
proxyapi ru отзывы (reviews)	7

Meaning: people already know ProxyAPI and are looking for its site, docs, or reviews — comparing providers in their head right before topping up a balance. If you are at that exact decision point for a Claude API provider in Russia, below is a detailed comparison built on facts from both services' websites: pricing, markups, model catalog, stability, privacy, payments, and paperwork. No bashing: ProxyAPI is a mature multi-vendor aggregator, and in several scenarios it objectively wins. We will show you exactly which ones.

Spoiler: for Claude specifically, LiteAI is orders of magnitude cheaper — tens of thousands of rubles per month at any realistic volume. For access to GPT, Gemini, DeepSeek and hundreds of other models with ruble payments — ProxyAPI is stronger. Everything else is detail.

TL;DR — what to pick

If you care about…	Pick
Lowest Claude price (Opus 5, Sonnet 5, Haiku 4.5)	LiteAI — flat 30 ₽ per 1M tokens, no input/output split
Predictable ruble budget — price that never floats	LiteAI (token packs 30–2,000 ₽)
Access to 390+ models (OpenAI, Google, DeepSeek, Qwen, xAI, Meta…) via one key	ProxyAPI
Pay-as-you-go — pay only for what you use, no packs	ProxyAPI
B2B paperwork: invoices, acceptance acts, EDI	ProxyAPI (closing documents) / LiteAI — YooKassa receipt
Crypto payments (USDT) from abroad	LiteAI (Bitbanker)
Zero retention — inference data never stored	LiteAI (default) / ProxyAPI states it does not store requests
PII masking in requests (Russian data law)	ProxyAPI — free built-in feature
Batch processing at 50% off	ProxyAPI (results within 24h)
Request logging with export	ProxyAPI (paid option)
OpenRouter balances with ruble payments	LiteAI ($25/$50/$100 via YooKassa)
Auto-top-up and per-key budget limits	ProxyAPI

This is not either/or. Both are legitimate Russian proxies to the same upstream providers, and you can combine them: LiteAI as the primary Claude backend, ProxyAPI for the rest of the model catalog.

What is ProxyAPI

ProxyAPI (proxyapi.ru) is a Russian intermediary service: it takes your request, routes it through a chain of proxy servers in Europe, and returns the response from the upstream AI provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, DeepSeek, and others). The service is owned by a Russian sole proprietor, operates under Russian law, and offers contracts, bank-transfer invoicing, and closing documents for legal entities.

Technically, ProxyAPI is a unified API with three formats:

• OpenAI-compatible (/v1/chat/completions, /v1/responses) — works with any OpenAI SDK;
• Anthropic Messages (/v1/messages, X-API-Key header) — the official Anthropic SDK connects by changing base_url;
• Google Gemini format (/v1beta) — for native Gemini clients.

Base URL: api.proxyapi.ru. No VPN, no foreign card, no foreign phone number — the same entry conditions as LiteAI.

The catalog is roughly 390 models: OpenAI (GPT-5.x, GPT-6, image models), Anthropic (Claude Opus 5, Sonnet 5, Haiku 4.5, Fable 5), Google (Gemini 3.x), DeepSeek V4, Qwen 3.x, xAI Grok, Meta, Zhipu GLM, ByteDance Seed, Tencent, NVIDIA, and smaller vendors. Plus modalities: images, video, speech, embeddings, web search (1 ₽/query), batch processing.

LiteAI in this comparison is an Anthropic-only provider: all Claude models under one fixed rate, plus a separate line of OpenRouter balances for non-Anthropic models.

Pricing: LiteAI packs vs ProxyAPI pay-as-you-go

The fundamental difference is the billing model, and each approach has real advantages.

LiteAI: fixed token packs

LiteAI sells token packs, not metered usage:

Pack	RUB	USD	Tokens	Cost per 1M tokens
1M	30 ₽	$1	1,000,000	30 ₽ / $1 per 1M
10M	300 ₽	$5	10,000,000	30 ₽ / $1 per 1M
100M	2,000 ₽	$25	100,000,000	20 ₽ / $0.25 per 1M (−33% volume discount)

Key properties:

• No input/output split — 30 ₽ per 1M applies to both input and output, and to both Opus 5 and Haiku 4.5.
• Balance never expires — the pack lives until spent.
• Fair-use rate limit — no hard RPM thresholds, with abuse protection.
• Payments: YooKassa (Russian cards, SBP) or USDT via Bitbanker.

ProxyAPI: balance top-up and metered billing

ProxyAPI does not sell packs: you top up any amount (card, SBP, bank invoice for legal entities), and billing follows actual token consumption at each model's individual rate. Catalog prices are quoted per 1M tokens, input and output separately, VAT included.

Advantages of this model:

• No minimum top-up — you can start with 100–200 ₽.
• No money wasted on unused volume — spend 3 ₽, pay 3 ₽.
• Auto-top-up — threshold plus target balance.
• Budget controls: monthly account budget, per-key budget, IP allowlists.

One minus, but mathematically decisive: every model has its own rate, and for Claude it is tens of times higher (next section).

Head-to-head: Claude per 1M tokens (Sept 17, 2026 snapshot)

ProxyAPI prices are from the proxyapi.ru/models/browse catalog, VAT included, input/output listed separately. For comparability with LiteAI's flat rate, we show a "blended" price at a typical agentic profile of 80% input / 20% output:

Model	ProxyAPI (input)	ProxyAPI (output)	ProxyAPI blended 80/20	LiteAI (flat)	Gap
Claude Opus 5	1,516 ₽	7,579 ₽	2,729 ₽/M	30 ₽/M	~91×
Claude Opus 4.8	1,516 ₽	7,579 ₽	2,729 ₽/M	30 ₽/M	~91×
Claude Sonnet 5	600 ₽	3,030 ₽	1,086 ₽/M	30 ₽/M	~36×
Claude Haiku 4.5	295 ₽	1,474 ₽	531 ₽/M	30 ₽/M	~18×
Claude Fable 5	2,100 ₽	10,500 ₽	3,780 ₽/M	500 ₽/M	~8×

For output-heavy workloads (chatbots, text generation — 20% input / 80% output) the gap widens further: Sonnet 5 on ProxyAPI costs 2,544 ₽/M — 85× LiteAI; Opus 5 — 6,366 ₽/M, 212×.

Real-volume math: 100M tokens

Blended 80/20 profile at 100M tokens per month:

Scenario	ProxyAPI	LiteAI	Savings
Claude Opus 5, 100M blended	~272,900 ₽	2,000 ₽ (100M pack)	~137×
Claude Sonnet 5, 100M blended	~108,600 ₽	2,000 ₽	~54×
Claude Haiku 4.5, 100M blended	~53,100 ₽	2,000 ₽	~27×

The break-even point where ProxyAPI becomes cheaper than LiteAI's 30 ₽/1M pack rate arrives at roughly 10–30 thousand tokens — literally one or two conversations. Any real development, chatbot, or agent crosses it on day one.

Where ProxyAPI's pay-as-you-go is genuinely better: experimenting with different models (Qwen today, DeepSeek tomorrow, Grok the day after) — you pay pennies per test and buy no packs. For Claude workloads, the economics are not a contest.

Model catalog: 390 models vs Claude-only

This is ProxyAPI's main advantage, and we will not downplay it.

ProxyAPI is a multi-vendor aggregator: GPT-5.x and GPT-6, Gemini 3.x, DeepSeek V4, Qwen 3.x, Grok 4.x, Llama/Meta, GLM, image and video models, embeddings, TTS/STT. If your product uses multiple providers at once, one ProxyAPI key covers the whole stack with unified billing, logging, and budgets.

LiteAI is Claude-only by architecture: we proxy Anthropic directly and hold the fixed price because of it. You cannot get GPT or Gemini through a LiteAI token key.

But there is a hybrid path: LiteAI sells OpenRouter balances ($25 / $50 / $100, ruble payments via YooKassa, rate +17%) — access to the OpenRouter catalog (hundreds of models) with a Russian payment path and no VPN. So "many models + rubles" is solvable without a separate ProxyAPI account: see OpenRouter plans at LiteAI and how to pay for OpenRouter from Russia.

Task	Best pick
Claude only (code, agents, production)	LiteAI — 30 ₽/M flat
Claude + occasional GPT/Gemini	LiteAI Claude + LiteAI OpenRouter balance
Constantly multi-vendor, unified billing	ProxyAPI
Cheap free-tier experiments	ProxyAPI (cheap open-source models) / OpenRouter free tier

Stability, rate limits, and 429 errors

Parameter	ProxyAPI	LiteAI
Upstream	Pool of accounts at upstream providers, "top tier levels"	Anthropic direct via own infrastructure (Bifrost)
RPM/TPM caps	Set by the upstream; "tens of thousands of requests and millions of tokens per minute" — unreachable at normal load	Fair-use, Anthropic-side 429 at peaks
Key auto-pause	Yes: 20 errors 4xx within a minute → pause 1 min → 10 min → 1 hour → 12 hours	No client-error auto-pause
Cross-provider failover	No (single upstream per model)	No (single backend — a deliberate trade)
Claimed uptime	Not published	99.9%
Client-side monitoring	Dashboard logs, X-Request-ID for support	/stats page per key, Telegram notifications

Both services are intermediaries, and both depend on upstream: when Anthropic goes down, both go down. The difference is in operational details: ProxyAPI punishes buggy retry loops in your code more strictly (key auto-pause); LiteAI is softer but constrained to one upstream.

On batch: ProxyAPI offers batch processing at 50% off with a 24-hour window — for offline workloads (dataset labeling, mass classification) that is a real saving. LiteAI has no batch endpoints — but even without them, the flat rate beats ProxyAPI-batch for Claude (30 ₽/M vs half of 1,086 ₽/M on Sonnet 5 = 543 ₽/M).

Privacy: logging, masking, zero retention

The approaches differ here, and "better/worse" depends on your compliance needs:

ProxyAPI states it does not collect or store request data passing through the API. At the same time, it optionally offers paid logging (full request/response content, metadata, NDJSON export, storage-period pricing) and free PII masking: the service detects passports, phone numbers, emails, cards, tax IDs, and secrets in requests, replaces them with synthetic values before sending to the upstream provider, and restores originals in the response. For companies handling personal data, masking is a real feature, not marketing.

LiteAI keeps zero retention for inference by default: the content of your requests is never stored in our infrastructure — not optionally, not for money. The only intermediate metadata (token volume per key) exists to power the stats page.

Scenario	Best pick
Data must not be stored anywhere	LiteAI (zero retention by default)
Full request logs needed for audits	ProxyAPI (paid option)
PII in requests, strict data law	ProxyAPI (masking)

Payments, VAT, and B2B paperwork

ProxyAPI is a Russian sole proprietor, and that is their B2B strength:

• Payment by any Russian bank card, SBP; for legal entities — bank invoice with closing documents (acceptance acts / UPD), EDI supported.
• All prices include VAT; balance tops up in any amount.
• Auto-top-up and monthly budgets — convenient for treasury controls.

LiteAI covers two payment paths:

• Rubles: YooKassa — Russian cards and SBP, receipt after payment.
• USDT: Bitbanker — if you are outside Russia or prefer crypto (ProxyAPI offers no crypto payments).

Packs are fixed (30 / 300 / 2,000 ₽), the key arrives by email right after payment. A reminder about the hybrid: LiteAI OpenRouter balances ($25/$50/$100 = 3,000/6,000/11,000 ₽) are ruble-paid access to the OpenRouter catalog without VPN — see how to pay for OpenRouter from Russia.

If your accounting needs acceptance acts and UPD — ProxyAPI wins here. LiteAI's closing paperwork is limited to a YooKassa receipt; enough for many sole proprietors, but for corporate procurement, decide by your finance department's requirements.

Claude Code and other integrations

Both services officially support Claude Code and the major AI tools:

Tool	ProxyAPI	LiteAI
Claude Code	✅ (ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL → api.proxyapi.ru, ~/.claude/settings.json)	✅ (base URL api.liteai.tech, key from the docs)
Codex CLI	✅	—
Gemini CLI	✅	—
OpenCode, Cline, Roo Code, Kilo Code	✅	✅ (via OpenAI-compatible /v1)
Cursor	✅	✅
Claude Desktop	✅	✅
Open WebUI	✅	✅ (LiteAI Chat)
n8n	✅	✅ (via /v1)

A ProxyAPI nuance: in Claude Code, ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_*_MODEL can map any catalog model into the Opus/Sonnet/Haiku slots — for example, running the Sonnet slot on deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash for pennies. It is an elegant trick LiteAI does not have (our slots are Claude by design, for stability and price).

Connection on both sides boils down to swapping the base URL and key: LiteAI exposes https://api.liteai.tech/v1 (OpenAI format) and /anthropic (Anthropic Messages); official SDKs work without code changes. Step-by-step — in the docs and the Claude Code setup guide.

ProxyAPI promo code

The proxyapi промокод query (14 searches/mo) is a typical tail for top-up services. To be honest: we do not republish other services' promo codes — look for current ProxyAPI codes in their Telegram and newsletters. LiteAI has no promo codes at all: the entry point is a 1M pack for 30 ₽, and for Claude work that beats any promo code on a pay-as-you-go competitor.

FAQ

Which is cheaper for Claude — ProxyAPI or LiteAI? LiteAI, by a wide margin: flat 30 ₽ per 1M tokens vs 531–3,780 ₽/M (blended 80/20) at ProxyAPI depending on the model. On Opus 5 the gap is about 91×; at 100M tokens a month, roughly 272,900 ₽ vs 2,000 ₽.

How is LiteAI cheaper if Anthropic sells tokens higher? Volume enterprise contracts and a flat rate: we average input/output and models across users and buy pools with volume discounts. ProxyAPI prices mirror the providers' list prices with their input/output split.

ProxyAPI or LiteAI for Claude Code? Both work without VPN. If budget matters — LiteAI: agentic Claude Code sessions are token-hungry, and 30 ₽/M vs hundreds or thousands ₽/M compounds fast. If you want the Sonnet slot on a cheap non-Claude model — ProxyAPI with ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_SONNET_MODEL.

Can I pay for ProxyAPI from abroad? Rubles: card, SBP, bank invoice for legal entities. Crypto is not offered. If you need USDT — that is LiteAI via Bitbanker.

Who stores my data? LiteAI — zero retention by default; request content is never stored. ProxyAPI states it does not store requests, optionally enables paid logging and free PII masking. If you want a full request history — ProxyAPI has it as an option, LiteAI does not have it at any price.

What should a legal entity pick? Need invoices, acts, UPD, and EDI — ProxyAPI. A receipt and the lowest Claude price are enough — LiteAI (YooKassa). Paying in crypto from abroad — LiteAI.

Does LiteAI have models besides Claude? Not through the token key — that is an architectural choice. But LiteAI sells OpenRouter balances ($25/$50/$100) paid in rubles via YooKassa — the OpenRouter catalog (hundreds of models) with a Russian payment path.

Bottom line

ProxyAPI and LiteAI solve different problems, overlapping on one — Claude access from Russia:

• ProxyAPI is the Swiss army knife: 390 models, pay-as-you-go, B2B paperwork, PII masking, batch at −50%, auto-top-up. If your stack is multi-vendor or corporate accounting needs closing documents, this is your tool.
• LiteAI is a Claude specialization with a price multi-aggregators cannot offer: 30 ₽ per 1M tokens flat, no input/output split, zero retention, rubles or USDT. For Claude workloads the difference is measured in tens of times, not percent.

Checking the economics on your own volume is easy: a 1M pack costs 30 ₽ — top up the minimum tier, plug in an API key, and compare against your current ProxyAPI bill for the same workload.