Best Claude Code Proxies Compared (2026)

What is a Claude proxy?

A Claude proxy sits between your development tool (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.) and Anthropic's API. Instead of hitting Anthropic directly with your single account, the proxy routes requests through a pool of accounts, distributing the load so no single account hits rate limits.

The key differences between proxies are: who manages the accounts, what it costs, and how much maintenance you need to do.

Comparison overview

ccflare

ccflare is the most popular open-source Claude proxy. It's a Cloudflare Worker you deploy yourself that rotates requests across your own Anthropic accounts.

Pros

• Free to use (open source)
• Full control over your infrastructure
• Good streaming support
• Active community

Cons

• You need to create and manage multiple Anthropic accounts yourself
• OAuth token refresh must be handled manually or scripted
• No analytics or usage tracking
• No automatic failover on 429/529 errors (basic round-robin only)
• Requires Cloudflare account setup

ccflare fits developers who want self-hosted account pooling and are comfortable managing the accounts and deployment. See the detailed ccflare vs OpenLimits comparison.

9Router

9Router is a free proxy service that offers basic Claude API access through a shared account pool.

Pros

• Free to use
• No account management needed
• Quick setup

Cons

• Shared pool means unpredictable availability
• Limited throughput during peak hours
• No SLA or reliability guarantees
• No analytics or usage tracking
• Unclear long-term sustainability

9Router provides a low-commitment way to test a shared proxy. Its published reliability and operating guarantees should determine whether it fits production use.

LiteLLM

LiteLLM is an enterprise-grade LLM proxy that supports multiple providers, including Anthropic. It's more of a general API gateway than a Claude-specific solution.

Pros

• Multi-provider support (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.)
• Enterprise features (logging, budgets, team management)
• Open source core
• OpenAI-compatible endpoint

Cons

• Complex setup that may be excessive for single-provider use
• Still requires your own API keys/accounts
• Doesn't solve rate limits by itself (no account pooling)
• Enterprise pricing for hosted version

LiteLLM fits teams that already operate several model providers and need one gateway. Account pooling remains the operator's responsibility.

OpenLimits

OpenLimits is a managed proxy service. The monthly plan includes pooled provider capacity, compatible APIs, and usage analytics without requiring you to operate the accounts.

Pros

• Managed setup with two environment variables
• No account management (fully managed pool)
• Real-time analytics dashboard with per-request token tracking
• Automatic failover with policy-based account selection
• OpenAI-compatible endpoint included
• Works with every dev tool (Claude Code, Cursor, Conductor, etc.)
• Predictable flat-rate pricing

Cons

• Monthly cost (€120/mo)
• Not open source
• Anthropic-only (no multi-provider support)

OpenLimits fits developers who want managed account routing and do not want to operate proxy infrastructure.

Which option fits?