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by Ryan Lindsey · 2026-09-07

Migrating from Anthropic Claude to ZCX can be a straightforward process, especially for teams looking to reduce costs without compromising on performance. This guide outlines a step-by-step approach to migrating, including setting up a route-through adapter, executing a regression test strategy, and planning the cutover. ZCX offers significant cost savings, with pricing starting at $33 per 1M tokens for the Business plan, compared to Anthropic's rates. This guide assumes you are familiar with the Anthropic API and are looking to switch to ZCX's OpenAI-compatible API at /v1/chat with Bearer token authentication.

Setting Up the Route-Through Adapter

The first step is to create a route-through adapter that will allow you to test ZCX in parallel with Anthropic Claude. This adapter should be designed to seamlessly switch between the two services based on a flag or configuration setting. Here is an example of a simple adapter in Python:

import requests

API_KEY_ZCX = 'your_zcx_api_key'
API_KEY_CLAUGE = 'your_claude_api_key'
USE_ZCX = True  # Set to False to use Claude

if USE_ZCX:
    api_url = 'https://zcx.zctechnologies.org/v1/chat'
    headers = {'Authorization': f'Bearer {API_KEY_ZCX}'}
else:
    api_url = 'https://api.anthropic.com/v1/complete'
    headers = {'Authorization': f'Bearer {API_KEY_CLAUGE}'}

response = requests.post(api_url, headers=headers, json={'prompt': 'Your prompt here'})
print(response.json())

Regression Test Strategy

Once the adapter is in place, you should conduct a regression test to ensure that the output from ZCX is consistent with Claude's. This involves running a suite of test cases that cover the range of use cases your application supports. The goal is to identify any discrepancies in the output that might affect your application's performance.

Cutover Plan

With the adapter and regression tests in place, you can plan the cutover to ZCX. This should be done during a maintenance window to minimize downtime. The cutover involves changing the flag in the adapter to use ZCX exclusively and monitoring the application for any issues. If all goes well, you can cancel your Anthropic subscription and continue using ZCX.

Conclusion

Switching from Anthropic Claude to ZCX can be done in an afternoon with the right preparation. By following this guide, you can ensure a smooth transition that saves you money without sacrificing performance. For more information on our pricing and plans, visit our website.