AI Code Generation

Creating an API key on Anthropic

Ahmed Aboulnaga

• 3 min read
Creating an API key on Anthropic

If you want to get started with AI-assisted coding (aka AI code generation, vibe coding, autonomous coding), one way is to use a plugin within your IDE. You will often need an API key so that your IDE can connect to a 3rd party model to do all its AI magic.

Some API providers include Amazon Bedrock, Anthropic, Cline, Google Gemini, Cline, OpenAI, Mistral, Alibaba Qwen, DeepSeek, xAI, AskSage, and so on. The market is currently flooded with many and it can become overwhelming figuring out which to choose from.

Each provider supplies their own models. Currently, my preferred model used to be claude-sonnet-4 but it is now claude-opus-4, both from Anthropic. Claude 4 Opus appears to be superior, but it is also 4x more expensive.

This blog explains how to setup and obtain an API key from Anthropic. In a separate blog post, you'll see where you can configure Visual Studio Code to use this API key.

Creating an API Key in Anthropic

  1. Navigate to https://console.anthropic.com
  2. Click on Continue with Google if you want to sign up with a Google account (or proceed with an email address if you choose to)
  1. Enter your name and accept the terms of service, then click Continue
  2. For the type of account, select Individual (not Business)
  3. On the dashboard, click on the arrow pointing right on the top-left corner to expand the navigation bar
  4. Click on API keys
  1. Click on Create Key
  2. Keep the default workspace, and just enter a name for your key (the name is irrelevant, it is just an identifier), then click Add
  1. Copy your API key, as you will not be able to view it again. Do not share it with anyone! Then click Close

The Dashboard

This is how your dashboard will look like in the end after creating your first API key. In fact, you can create multiple API keys and they will all appear here.

The API key that you just copied should be stored in a safe/private location, and it will be entered later on in your IDE. Remember, the console will no longer allow you to view your API key.

What if I forgot or lost my API key?

Simply click the three dots ... beside the API key on the console and delete the current key, and then create a new one.

Free to use? No

The API keys you create here does not provide unlimited usage. You receive $5.00 of free credit from Anthropic across all your API keys. Within your IDE, every request for AI-assisted coding has a cost depending on the size of the request. Your $5.00 credit can be eaten up pretty fast.

On the dashboard above, click on Billing, then click on Buy credits.

Here you can see a current balance of $5.00 (for the free credits), but you can add more as needed.