LangChain API Pricing: What You Need to Know
Overview
LangChain is a powerful open-source framework that enables developers to build context-aware, language model powered applications, such as autonomous agents, RAG systems, and AI chatbots. While LangChain itself does not charge for API usage, several related costs can arise depending on your usage.
This article provides a comprehensive breakdown of LangChain API pricing, including:
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Costs related to LangSmith (LangChain’s tracing and observability platform)
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Third-party LLM API costs (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic)
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Pricing plans, trace costs, and seat/user charges
LangChain Framework: Open-Source and Free
LangChain’s core API is:
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Free to use (MIT licensed)
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Available in Python and JavaScript
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Hosted on GitHub: LangChain GitHub
There are no charges for using LangChain libraries locally or in your own infrastructure.
LangSmith Pricing (Tracing & Observability)
LangSmith is LangChain’s official observability and debugging platform. It lets teams monitor how chains, agents, and LLMs are functioning in real time through a trace-based logging system.
What Is a "Trace"?
A trace is a complete record of a chain, agent, or evaluator invocation. It may include one or more calls to external LLM APIs and provides visibility into execution steps and outcomes.
LangSmith Plans & Pricing
| Plan | Price | Included Traces | Retention | Seats |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Developer | Free | 5,000 base traces/month | 14 days | 1 user |
| Plus | $39/user/month | 10,000 base traces/month | 14 days | Named users |
| Enterprise | Custom pricing | Custom | Up to 400 days | Unlimited |
Paid Trace Pricing
If you exceed your free monthly trace quota, here’s how much additional traces cost:
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Base Traces (14-day retention): $0.50 per 1,000 traces
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Extended Traces (400-day retention): $5.00 per 1,000 traces
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Upgrade base to extended: $4.50 per 1,000 traces
Note: All invited users are billed as named seats, even if they don’t actively use the system.
LLM API Pricing (e.g., OpenAI)
LangChain does not charge for LLM usage—but it integrates directly with many providers whose costs are billed separately.
Common Providers & Pricing:
| Model | Input / 1K Tokens | Output / 1K Tokens |
|---|---|---|
| GPT-3.5 Turbo | $0.0015 | $0.002 |
| GPT-4 Turbo | $0.01 | $0.03 |
| GPT-4 (8K) | $0.03 | $0.06 |
| GPT-4 (32K) | $0.06 | $0.12 |
Other LLMs like Anthropic’s Claude, Google Gemini, and Mistral follow similar token-based pricing.
LLM costs are based on:
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Prompt (input) tokens
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Completion (output) tokens
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Total number of calls
Example Cost Breakdown
Let’s say your team is using LangSmith Plus with OpenAI GPT-4 Turbo:
| Component | Example Monthly Usage | Cost Estimate |
|---|---|---|
| LangSmith Plan | 2 users | $39 × 2 = $78 |
| Additional Traces | 20,000 (10k over) | $0.50 × 10 = $5 |
| LLM Tokens (GPT-4 Turbo) | 500k in / 500k out | $0.01×500 + $0.03×500 = $20 |
Total Est. Monthly Cost: $103
Summary Table
| Pricing Component | Cost |
|---|---|
| LangChain Framework | Free |
| LangSmith (Developer) | Free (5,000 traces, 1 seat) |
| LangSmith (Plus) | $39/user/month (10,000 traces included) |
| Additional Base Traces | $0.50 / 1,000 traces |
| Extended Traces | $5.00 / 1,000 traces |
| LLM API Usage | Varies by provider (OpenAI, etc.) |
Enterprise & Startup Support
LangChain offers custom pricing and deployment for enterprise users that need:
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400-day trace retention
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SSO and role-based access
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On-prem or VPC hosting
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HIPAA/GDPR/SOC2 compliance
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SLA-backed support
Contact sales at sales@langchain.dev for quotes and demos.
LangGraph Platform Pricing: Scalable Plans for Every Team
LangGraph Platform offers a flexible pricing structure designed to support teams at every stage of agent development and deployment. With three distinct plans Developer, Plus, and Enterprise users can choose the best fit based on their deployment needs, usage volume, and support requirements.
- The Developer Plan is ideal for solo developers and startups exploring LangGraph in self-hosted environments. It's free and includes up to 100,000 node executions per month, plus access to essential APIs and LangGraph Studio.
- The Plus Plan supports growing teams through managed Cloud SaaS deployment. It's priced at $0.001 per node executed, with additional standby minute charges. This plan includes enhanced features such as cron scheduling, smart caching, and authentication capabilities, and requires a LangSmith Plus subscription ($39/user/month).
- The Enterprise Plan caters to large organizations needing advanced support, custom deployment options (Self-Hosted, Hybrid, or Cloud), SLAs, and dedicated onboarding. Pricing is custom and includes white-glove services like architecture guidance, Slack support, and customer success engineering.
LangGraph's pricing is usage based, scalable, and designed to meet diverse operational and security needs whether you're prototyping or running production level AI agents.
Conclusion
While LangChain’s core libraries are free, production-grade usage introduces costs via:
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LangSmith traces and seats
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External LLM API usage
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Optional enterprise deployment and support
Planning for LangChain pricing means understanding both trace volume and token usage. With proper configuration, teams can scale reliably and predictably.
Let me know if you’d like a pricing calculator, comparison with LangChain alternatives, or cost estimation template for your project.