Claude in Cherry Studio — Buy a Key, Start Chatting

Cherry Studio is a great way to talk to Claude on the desktop, and you do not need an Anthropic account to do it. Buy a key from claudeapikey.dev, add it as an Anthropic-type provider, and start chatting. WELCOME5 gives you five dollars of free credit to try before you pay.

Start with a bought key

There is no signup with Anthropic and no waitlist.

The purchased key works like an Anthropic key inside Cherry Studio, so the setup is short. You add one provider, paste the key, and you are chatting within minutes.

Cherry Studio is a popular first stop for people who want to try Claude without writing any code, and a bought key fits that perfectly. You get a real desktop chat client and a working key together, with no developer onboarding standing between you and your first conversation. A real desktop client plus a working key, with no code in between, is exactly what most newcomers want. You are chatting with Claude within minutes of buying the key.

Add an Anthropic-type provider

Open Settings, go to Model Services, and add a provider. When asked for the type, choose Anthropic — that targets the native Messages surface and is the right type for a Claude key.

Enable the provider and paste your bought key into the API Key field. There is no extra protocol setting to fiddle with once the type is Anthropic.

Choosing Anthropic rather than the OpenAI type is the one decision that matters here, since it tells Cherry Studio to speak the format a Claude key expects. Once that type is set, the rest of the provider form is just the key and the host, both of which you have ready. Once the type is Anthropic, the remaining fields are just the key and host you already have ready. There is no protocol decision left to make.

Set the API Host right

Put the host root in the API Host field with no /v1 on the end, because Cherry Studio appends the version path itself. Adding /v1 yourself doubles the path and the request fails — this trips up a lot of first-time setups.

So the value is {SITE}. If the service needs an exact path, end the host with a # to lock it, but for most setups you leave it bare and let Cherry Studio append.

If your very first message errors, this field is the first thing to check rather than your key. A bought key that is wrong gives a clear authentication error, whereas a malformed API Host gives a path or not-found error — so the type of error tells you which one to fix. Letting the error type guide you means you fix the right field instead of guessing. An auth error points at the key, a path error at the host.

Test on the free credit

That is enough to confirm the key, the API Host, and the type are all correct before spending anything.

Top up only once you have seen Claude reply in Cherry Studio. The bought-key model is pay-as-you-go, so there is no subscription to cancel and nothing committed up front.

Because the free credit covers real conversations, you can use it to decide whether Cherry Studio and Claude are the combination you want before paying a cent. If they are, topping up is a single step; if not, you simply walk away having spent nothing. The free credit lets the decision to pay come after you have seen the value, not before. If it suits you, topping up is a single step.

Pick your model

Add claude-sonnet-4-5 for everyday chat and claude-opus-4-8 when you want the strongest reasoning. Both run on the same purchased key, so switching between them is just a menu choice.

Because you only pay for what you use, you can keep the heavier model on hand for hard questions and drop to the lighter one for quick chats — no plan tier dictates which you may use.

That pay-as-you-go flexibility suits Cherry Studio's mixed use well, where some chats are quick lookups and others are long deep dives. You match the model to the question rather than to a subscription level, and your spend simply tracks what you actually asked for. Matching the model to each question rather than a tier is the freedom pay-as-you-go quietly gives you. Quick lookups stay cheap; hard questions get the strong model.

# Cherry Studio -> Settings -> Model Services -> + Add
# Provider type: Anthropic   (native /v1/messages)
# API Key:  <your gateway key>
# API Host: https://claudeapikey.dev        (root only, NO /v1 -- it auto-appends)
#   end with #  ->  https://claudeapikey.dev#   to lock the exact URL
# Model: claude-sonnet-4-5

Frequently asked questions

Do I need an Anthropic account for Cherry Studio?
No. Buy a key from claudeapikey.dev and add it as an Anthropic-type provider with API Host {SITE} (root, no /v1).

Should the API Host include /v1?
No — host root only; Cherry Studio appends it. The trailing # locks the exact URL if you need a precise path.

Which provider type do I choose?
Anthropic, which targets the native /v1/messages surface a Claude key expects.

Claude API Key is an independent API gateway. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or a reseller of Anthropic. Claude and related model names are trademarks of their respective owners.