Claude Code in the Philippines: how Filipino developers are running AI at ₱112/month
ChatGPT costs ₱1,120/month. That's not pocket change — that's half a week of groceries in Cebu, or three commutes from Caloocan to BGC.
For Filipino developers building on freelance income, ₱1,120/month for an AI subscription is a real decision. Do you pay for AI or do you pay for something else?
Here's what's changed: there's now a Claude API proxy at ₱112/month — 10x cheaper than ChatGPT, and it works with Claude Code directly.
The math Filipino devs actually care about
| Tool | Monthly Cost | Annual Cost |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT Plus | ₱1,120/month | ₱13,440/year |
| Claude Pro | ~₱1,500/month | ~₱18,000/year |
| SimplyLouie | ₱112/month | ₱1,344/year |
That's ₱12,096 back in your pocket every year.
For a Upwork developer billing $15/hour, ₱1,120/month is almost 3 hours of work. SimplyLouie costs less than 30 minutes of billing.
What you actually get
SimplyLouie is an ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL proxy — it routes your Claude Code sessions through a pooled API, so you get:
- Full Claude claude-3-5-sonnet and claude-3-opus access
- No rate limit walls mid-session
- Works in Claude Code, Cursor, and any OpenAI-compatible tool
- 7-day free trial — test before you pay a centavo
Setting it up (3 minutes)
# 1. Sign up at simplylouie.com/ph/ — get your API key
# 2. Set in your shell config
export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=https://simplylouie.com/api/proxy
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your-key-here
# 3. Launch Claude Code normally
claude
That's it. Claude Code now routes through SimplyLouie.
The rate limit problem Filipino freelancers hit hardest
If you're doing freelance work on Upwork or Fiverr — client deadlines, fast turnarounds, multiple concurrent projects — you hit Claude's rate limits fast.
The pattern looks like this:
- You open Claude Code to fix a bug for a client
- You've already used Claude for your own project this morning
- Rate limit wall. "Try again in 2 hours."
- Client is waiting. You can't wait 2 hours.
With ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL pointing to SimplyLouie, that wall disappears. The proxy pools usage across sessions so no single session hits the wall.
Running parallel sessions for multiple clients
This is the Filipino freelancer use case that makes SimplyLouie worth it:
# Terminal 1 - Client A project
cd ~/projects/client-a
claude "fix the React component bug in UserDashboard.tsx"
# Terminal 2 - Client B project (simultaneously)
cd ~/projects/client-b
claude "add pagination to the Express API endpoint"
# Terminal 3 - Your own SaaS project
cd ~/projects/my-saas
claude "implement the payment webhook handler"
Three parallel Claude Code sessions, all running without rate limits, all billing to ₱112/month total.
Verification
curl https://simplylouie.com/api/proxy/v1/messages \
-H "x-api-key: $ANTHROPIC_API_KEY" \
-H "anthropic-version: 2023-06-01" \
-H "content-type: application/json" \
-d '{"model":"claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022","max_tokens":100,"messages":[{"role":"user","content":"ping"}]}'
You should see a JSON response with content. If you do, the proxy is working.
For developers in Manila, Cebu, Davao, Cagayan de Oro
The Philippine tech scene is growing fast — the Ortigas corridor, the BGC startup ecosystem, the Cebu IT Park. But $20/month AI subscriptions priced for San Francisco salaries don't make sense for PH salaries.
₱112/month is a different calculation entirely.
Try it free for 7 days → simplylouie.com/ph/
No commitment. Card required but not charged for 7 days. Cancel anytime.
50% of revenue goes to animal rescue. Built by one developer and a rescued dog named Louie.
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