How much does an hour of coding agent work cost: ranking five API gateways by expenses

With the release of Claude Opus 5.5 and GPT-6 Sol, optimizing API usage costs has become a priority. The author analyzed the cost of running coding agents through five different API gateways accessible for payments from Russia. Based on 49 sessions and 138 hours of work, a significant price variance was observed, ranging from 181 to 1,756 rubles per hour. The study highlights that expenses are heavily influenced by token caching policies. Although cache usage accounts for only 5% of incoming tokens, it can represent up to half of the total bill. It was found that gateways with low base prices are not always more economical if the cost of reading from the cache is comparable to standard input. The article emphasizes the importance of selecting the right provider for long-term AI agent operations.