Claude API Prompt Caching for Enterprise: Guide 2026

Anthropic just made the Claude API dramatically cheaper for high-volume users. The new prompt caching feature lets enterprise customers cache frequently-used prompt components, slashing API costs by up to 90% for repetitive workloads.

If you're running Claude at scale, this changes your unit economics significantly.

## Why This Matters

Most production Claude applications send the same system prompt, context documents, or few-shot examples with every single API request. You're paying to process the same tokens over and over.

Prompt caching solves this. Mark sections of your prompt as cacheable, and Anthropic's API will:
- Store those tokens server-side
- Reuse them across requests
- Charge you only for the cache creation and the new tokens

**Cost breakdown:**
- First request with cache creation: 100% cost
- Subsequent requests using cache: 10% cost for cached tokens
- Cache lifetime: 5 minutes by default, up to 1 hour for enterprise

For applications that send the same 50KB context document with every request, this is a 90% cost reduction on that portion of the prompt.

## How to Use Prompt Caching

The API is simple. Wrap cacheable sections in a new `cache_control` parameter:

```json
{
"model": "claude-3-7-sonnet-20260108",
"messages": [
{
"role": "user",
"content": [
{
"type": "text",
"text": "System: You are a helpful assistant...",
"cache_control": {"type": "ephemeral"}
},
{
"type": "text",
"text": "User query here"
}
]
}
]
}
```

The API returns a `cache_id` in the response. Subsequent requests with the same cached content will reference that ID automatically.

## What to Cache

Best candidates for caching:
- **System prompts** - Your app's core instructions that never change
- **Context documents** - Product catalogs, knowledge bases, API documentation
- **Few-shot examples** - Formatting examples that guide Claude's responses
- **User context** - Profile data, preferences, conversation history

**Don't cache:**
- Unique user queries (defeats the purpose)
- Rapidly changing data (cache expires before reuse)
- Small prompts (overhead isn't worth it)

## Enterprise-Only Features

Standard tier customers get 5-minute cache lifetime. Enterprise customers get:
- Up to 1-hour cache lifetime
- Dedicated cache allocation (no eviction during high load)
- Cache analytics dashboard (hit rates, cost savings)
- Cross-region cache replication

## Quick Takeaway

Prompt caching is a no-brainer for production Claude applications. If you're sending the same context with every API call, implement caching and watch your costs drop.

Enterprise customers should reach out to their Anthropic account team for longer cache lifetimes. The ROI is immediate.