Claude Max and Team free API credits: how to claim them and what they cover

Claude Max and Team plans now come with free monthly Claude API credits: $100 a month on Max 5x, $200 on Max 20x, and up to $500 on Team. To claim them, open Settings > Billing on claude.ai and link a Claude Console organisation in the new API credits section, according to Anthropic’s documentation. Pro and Free plans don’t get them, they don’t work in Claude Code, and anything you don’t spend disappears at the end of the month. Here’s how to claim them and what they’re good for.

Claude Max API credits: how much you get

The credits were announced on October 7, 2026, alongside Claude Haiku 5.5, and are rolling out over a few days. Here’s what each plan gets:

Team credits are pooled into one balance capped at $500 a month.

On Team, the pool is worked out from the seats on the plan at the start of each billing month. Anthropic’s example: three Standard seats and two Premium seats give $260 a month, and adding a third Premium seat raises the next month’s credit to $360. A Team plan reaches the $500 cap with five Premium seats or 25 Standard ones.

How to claim your Claude API credits

You need to have been on Max or Team for at least seven days, and the plan has to be paid up. You don’t need a card on the Claude Platform. Then:

1. Check your roles. On Max you must be the subscriber; on Team, the Primary Owner or an Owner. In the Console organisation you link, you need to be an Owner, Admin or Billing member.
2. Open billing on claude.ai in a web browser. Go to Settings > Billing on Max, or Organization settings > Billing on Team.
3. Click “Link organization” in the API credits section. Pick an existing Console organisation or create a new one there.
4. Accept the terms and link. Anthropic’s supplemental credit terms apply.
5. Find the credits in the Console. At platform.claude.com/settings/billing, under Promotional credits, with the amount and expiry date. Create an API key and you can start making requests.

Choose carefully: each plan links to one Console organisation, and each organisation can take credits from only one plan. You can’t change the link yourself afterwards; only Anthropic support can. If you already have a Console organisation with apps and API keys in it, linking that one means its keys draw on the free credits first.

Claude API credits not showing?

If there’s no API credits section on your billing page, Anthropic says you’re probably not eligible yet. Work through this list:

• Wrong plan: Free, Pro and Enterprise plans don’t see the offer.
• Too new: it appears after seven days on Max or Team.
• Still rolling out: Anthropic says the rollout takes a few days, so some eligible accounts won’t see it straight away.
• Wrong role: on Team, only the Primary Owner or an Owner can claim.
• In the app: plans bought through Claude for iPhone or Android qualify, but you have to claim on claude.ai in a browser.
• Linking fails: sign in to the Console with the same email address you use on claude.ai, and if you still get an error, try again a few hours later.

If none of that applies, Anthropic asks you to contact support.

What the API credits cover

Every API key and workspace in the linked organisation draws from the same balance. To stop one project eating the lot, Anthropic suggests putting it in its own workspace with a spend limit.

Linking also raises your Console organisation to at least the Start usage tier, or the Build tier if your monthly credit is over $200, which only bigger Team plans get. The credits don’t count towards moving up tiers beyond that, and they don’t change your usage limits in Claude or Claude Code.

Can you use the credits in Claude Code?

Mostly not. Anthropic says the credits are for building your own apps and agents, so interactive Claude Code sessions keep using your plan’s limits, and extra usage past those limits is billed separately. If you point Claude Code at an organisation that holds only these credits, it shows “Credit balance too low”.

The exception is headless mode: claude -p is covered when you run it yourself with an API key from the linked organisation. Signed in with your Claude plan, claude -p uses your plan limits instead. Runs started by the Claude Code GitHub Action, an IDE extension or the Claude desktop app count as Claude Code usage and aren’t covered. To make your plan limits last longer, see our guide to stopping Claude Code burning through your usage.

How far $100 of Claude API credit goes

That depends on the model. Here are the current API prices per million tokens, with our rough count of how many requests $100 covers if each one sends 2,000 tokens and gets 500 back:

Prices from Anthropic’s pricing page. Request counts are MadRobot’s illustration; thinking tokens are billed as output, so real counts are usually lower.

To stretch the credits, Anthropic suggests picking the smallest model that does the job, using prompt caching for repeated context, and sending work that can wait through the Message Batches API, which costs half as much. Agent sessions on Managed Agents also cost $0.08 per hour of running time on top of tokens.

Do Claude API credits expire?

Yes. New credits arrive shortly after each plan payment, or monthly on annual plans, and unused credits expire at the end of that billing cycle. Nothing rolls over. They’re spent before any credits you’ve bought.

When they run out, API requests stop with “Your credit balance is too low to access the Anthropic API”, unless the organisation has bought credits or turned on auto-reload. Anthropic says usage is never charged to your Claude plan, so you can’t run up a surprise bill on your subscription by accident.

What happens if you change plan

• Cancel, downgrade to Pro or get a refund: new credits stop when the plan ends, and what you already have stays usable until it expires.
• Max 5x to Max 20x: you get prorated credits straight away, then $200 each cycle. Through Google Play, the $200 can take until your next renewal.
• Max to Team: the Max link ends, and a Team Owner can claim the team’s credits after seven days on Team.
• Adding Team seats: they count from the next billing month’s credit.

Where the Claude API credits work

The credits come in US dollars wherever you pay for your plan, and Anthropic’s pages list no country restrictions, so they should work in every country where Max and Team are sold, including the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Germany and the rest of the EU, India and Japan. They’re usable only on the Claude API in the Claude Console, not through Amazon, Google or Microsoft’s clouds, whatever region you’re in.

If you’re a startup, Anthropic also runs a separate Claude Startups programme with a one-off $1,000 in API credits on top of a free year of Team.

Last checked: October 8, 2026, against Anthropic’s documentation and help centre.

Frequently asked questions

Does Claude Max include API credits?

Yes. Since October 2026, Max 5x includes $100 a month and Max 20x $200 a month in Claude API credits. You claim them by linking a Claude Console organisation in Settings > Billing on claude.ai.

Do Claude Pro users get free API credits?

No. Anthropic says Free, Pro and Enterprise plans are not eligible. Only Max 5x, Max 20x and Team plans, including discounted Team plans, get the monthly credits.

How much API credit does a Claude Team plan get?

$20 a month per Standard seat and $100 per Premium seat, pooled into one balance and capped at $500 a month. The amount is based on the seats on the plan at the start of each billing month.

Why are my Claude API credits not showing?

The offer appears only on Max and Team plans after seven days, it is rolling out over a few days, and on Team only the Primary Owner or an Owner can claim. Claim on claude.ai in a browser, not in the app. If it still does not show, contact Anthropic support.

Can I use the Claude Max API credits in Claude Code?

Not for interactive sessions in the terminal, IDE, desktop or web, which keep using your plan limits. The exception is claude -p run with an API key from the linked Console organisation.

Do Claude API credits expire?

Yes. They expire at the end of each billing cycle, or monthly on annual plans, and unused credits do not roll over.

What happens when my free API credits run out?

API requests stop until the next month's credits arrive, unless the organisation has bought credits or turned on auto-reload. Anthropic says usage is never charged to your Claude plan.

Can I change which Console organisation gets my credits?

Not yourself. Each plan links to one Console organisation and each organisation can take credits from one plan. To change the link, contact Anthropic support.

Is Opus cheaper than Sonnet on the API?

Not per token: Claude Opus 5.5 costs $4 per million input tokens and $20 per million output tokens, twice Sonnet 5.5's $2 and $10. It only works out cheaper if it uses fewer tokens for the same job, which depends on the task, so test both in the Console Playground.

Do the credits work on Amazon Bedrock or Google Cloud?

No. They work only on the Claude API in the Claude Console, not on Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud Vertex AI, Microsoft Foundry or Claude Platform on AWS.

Sources: Anthropic (API credits for Max and Team plans, help centre: monthly API credits for Max and Team plans, pricing).