Best Practices
Claude API best practices — optimize costs, reduce latency, handle errors, and build reliable AI applications.
LLMsRelay is an independently operated API gateway. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic, PBC. Product and model names are used only to describe compatibility.
Error Handling
- Implement exponential backoff for 429 and 5xx errors
- Set reasonable timeouts (30-120s depending on model and max_tokens)
- Parse error responses and handle specific error types
- Log request IDs for debugging
Performance
- Use streaming for better perceived latency in user-facing applications
- Choose the right model tier for your use case — Haiku for speed, Opus for quality
- Set
max_tokensappropriately — lower values reduce response time and cost - Use system prompts efficiently — keep them concise
Cost Optimization
- Monitor usage through the dashboard
- Set per-key credit limits
- Use smaller models (Haiku) for simple tasks
- Leverage prompt caching for repeated prompts
- Minimize unnecessary context in messages
Streaming is billed the same as non-streaming requests — there's no cost penalty for enabling it.
Security
- Store API keys in environment variables, never in source code
- Use separate keys for different environments
- Implement server-side proxying for client applications
- Regularly audit key usage in the dashboard