What This Is | What You Get |
|---|---|
Format | Copy-paste system prompts + step-by-step deployment guide |
Platform | Claude Managed Agents (launched April 8, 2026 — public beta) |
Cost | $0.08/hr runtime + token costs. A 24/7 agent = ~$58/month |
Prereqs | Claude Pro or API access. Basic familiarity with Claude Projects. |
Time to deploy | Agent 1: ~2 hours. Agents 2 & 3: ~45 min each after that. |
What Claude Managed Agents Actually Are
Claude Managed Agents is Anthropic's cloud infrastructure for running AI agents in production — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, without your laptop being open. You define the task, the tools, and the guardrails. Anthropic handles the execution environment.
Before this, building a production agent required months of infrastructure work: sandboxed execution, state management, credential handling, error recovery. That second job is now handled for you.
THE PRICING BREAKDOWN
Runtime: $0.08 per hour the agent is active
A 24/7 agent: $0.08 × 24 hours × 30 days = $57.60/month in runtime
Token costs: Add ~$20–80/month depending on how much the agent reads and writes
Total real-world cost: $60–120/month for a fully active agent
Compare to: a part-time contractor at $800–2,000/month doing the same work
The 3 Agents Worth Building First