Claude's Max and Team plans come with credits you can spend on the Claude API every month. On Max 20x, that is $200 a month. However, not a single dollar arrives unless you claim it yourself. The credits also can't be used for your regular Claude Code usage, and whatever you leave unused does not roll over to the next month. This article explains how to claim them, where they can be used, and what to decide before linking an organization. It is based on my own record of the screens when I, the operator of this site, claimed the credits on a Max 20x plan on October 10, 2026, and on the official documentation, help articles, and terms, which I checked in the original on the same day.

Monthly amount

$200 on Max 20x

$100 on Max 5x. Team depends on the number of seats, capped at $500 in total.

Where they work

The API, the Agent SDK, and more

Not for interactive Claude Code or extra usage in the apps.

Claiming and expiry

Opt-in, no rollover

You claim them by linking a Console organization. They expire at the end of each cycle.

Sources: API credits for Max and Team plans (official Claude Platform documentation) and Monthly API credits for Max and Team plans (Claude Help Center). Checked October 10, 2026.

Contents

1. How much each plan gets

The amount is fixed by plan. Summarizing the table in the official documentation:

Max 5x$100 a month.
Max 20x$200 a month.
Team (Standard seat)$20 per seat.
Team (Premium seat)$100 per seat.
Team totalAll seats are pooled into a single amount, capped at $500. For example, 3 Standard seats and 2 Premium seats come to $260 a month. Discounted Team plans for nonprofits and researchers get the same amounts.
Not eligibleFree, Pro, and Enterprise.

For Team, the amount is calculated from the number of seats at the start of that billing month. If you add seats partway through, the increase applies from the following month. New subscribers can claim the credits once they have been on an eligible plan for 7 days. Plans purchased through the iPhone or Android app are eligible too, but you claim the credits on claude.ai on the web.

The official help article also notes that the credits are being rolled out gradually over several days, so some people may not see them yet. If the option to claim still doesn't appear after 7 days, it advises checking your plan and your role, and contacting support if that doesn't solve it.

2. Where you can and can't use them

These credits are for building and running your own apps and agents on Claude's developer platform (Claude Platform). They do not increase your allowance for everyday chat or for Claude Code.

Can useThe Claude API (the Messages API and the Message Batches API for bulk jobs).
Can useClaude Managed Agents (a service where Anthropic provides the environment your agents run in).
Can useThe Claude Agent SDK and the Console Playground.
Can useclaude -p (Claude Code's non-interactive mode) that you run yourself with a Console API key.
Can't useInteractive Claude Code sessions. Usage from the desktop app, IDE extensions, or GitHub Actions is not covered either, even with -p.
Can't useExtra usage in the Claude apps after you reach your usage limit.
Can't useUsage through Claude Platform on AWS, Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud, or Microsoft Foundry.

In the Promotional credits section of the Console, the credits were listed as applying to "Agent SDK," "API," "Batch API," "Playground," and "Managed Agents" (my screen, October 10, 2026). This matches the table in the official documentation.

3. How to claim them: a record of my screens

To claim the credits, you need an organization in the Claude Platform's management console (Claude Console). If you have never used the Console, you can create one first at platform.claude.com, or create it during the claiming process. You don't need to add a payment method on the Console side.

  1. Open the billing page on claude.ai On Max, go to Settings → Billing; on Team, go to Organization settings → Billing. On my screen, the API credits section said that the Max 20x plan includes $200 USD in API credits every month, with a button to link an organization next to it (my screens were in Japanese).
  2. Choose the organization and link it In the dialog for linking an API organization, choose the organization and press the link button. Pressing it means you agree to the terms for the credits (the Supplemental Credit Terms).
  3. Check the balance in the Console In the Console, under Settings → Billing, the Promotional credits section lists the balance, what the credits apply to, the expiry date, and the date granted. The credit figure in the lower left is the total including any credits you bought.

In my case, a notification appeared right after linking, saying my first $200 USD in API credits had been added. I linked partway through my billing cycle, but the amount was not prorated: I received the full $200. In exchange, that $200 expired about three weeks later (granted October 10, expiring November 1 UTC). The claude.ai screen then showed that the organization was linked, along with the monthly credit amount ($200) and the date of the next credit (October 31, 2026).

A month you don't claim is a month you get $0. Credits are granted per billing cycle, and I found nothing in the official documents describing a way to receive past months' credits retroactively. If you are on Max or Team, it pays to link early.

Claiming takes only a few clicks, but you can't change the linked organization yourself. The official documentation warns you to link the organization you intend to use for development. If you want to change it, you have to contact support.

One plan, one organizationA plan can be linked to only one organization. You also can't split the credits across multiple organizations.
One organization, one planAn organization can receive credits from only one plan. Even if you have two Max subscriptions, you can't combine them into $400 in the same organization.
Required rolesOn the plan side: the subscriber for Max, or the Primary Owner or an Owner for Team. On the Console organization side: Owner, Admin, or Billing.
Same emailIf it doesn't work, check that you are signed in to the Console with the same email address as on claude.ai (the fix suggested in the official help article).
When you change plansCanceling, switching to an ineligible plan, or getting a refund stops future grants. Credits already received can be used until they expire. Switching from Max to Team removes the Max link, and the Team credits can be claimed once you have been on Team for 7 days.

The decision people most often get stuck on is whether to link a company organization or a personal one. Within a single organization, every API key and workspace draws from the same balance. If you want to manage projects separately, keep one organization and divide it into workspaces (Section 7).

5. The order credits are used in, and auto-reload

If your organization has bought credits in the Console before, pay attention to the order in which credits are used and to your auto-reload setting.

Order of useCredits from your plan are used first, purchased credits after.
Auto-reloadIt looks only at the balance of purchased credits. Even if plan credits remain, it tops up once the purchased balance drops below your threshold.
When both run outAPI requests stop, and you can't use the API until the next grant. Nothing is charged to your Claude plan.
Invoiced through salesUsage beyond the credits is billed as usual.

My organization still had about $21 of previously purchased credits, and auto-reload (set to top up to $30 when the balance falls below $10) was still on. Since I wanted to get by on the monthly credits alone, I turned it off on the Console billing page after claiming. Once it is off, the screen shows a message saying that auto-reload is off and that API requests will stop when the balance runs out (my screen was in Japanese).

When the balance runs out, the API returns the following message:

Your credit balance is too low to access the Anthropic API. Please go to Plans & Billing to upgrade or purchase credits.

6. How this relates to Claude Code

These credits don't appear in Claude Code's usage screen. That's because Claude Code's usage limits (the 5-hour limit and the weekly limit) don't change when you claim the credits. I've written about what to do when you hit those limits in "You've hit your session limit in Claude Code: what to do."

The exception is claude -p and the Agent SDK run yourself with a Console API key. According to the official help article, these are paid for with the credits. The same claude -p, if run while logged in with your Max or Team account, draws from your plan's usage limits instead.

Be careful where you put your API key. According to the official Claude Code documentation, the ANTHROPIC_API_KEY environment variable takes precedence over your plan login. When you start interactive claude in a terminal, it asks once whether to use the key; with -p, the key is always used if it is present.

If you keep a key under this name permanently, for example as a Windows environment variable, you may end up switched to API billing without meaning to. In that case, interactive sessions, which the credits don't cover, stop with "Credit balance too low." I keep the key in a variable with a different name that only my scripts read, and pass the key only to the specific command when I use claude -p. The details of the precedence order are covered in "Why claude.ai connectors are disabled, and your API key."

Note that the desktop app and cloud sessions don't read this environment variable (official documentation).

7. Ways to use them all, and spend limits

Unused credits disappear at the end of the cycle and don't roll over. To use them up every month, this is the approach I'm considering:

  • Decide on recurring monthly work first Put work that comes up in the same amount every month, such as translation drafts or regular data aggregation, on the credits first.
  • Keep work ready to soak up the remainder A few days before expiry, have a large batch of work you can run for exactly the amount left (such as reviewing existing documents). Work that isn't wasted if you stop it partway is best.
  • Run non-urgent work through Batch The Message Batches API costs 50% less, so the same amount processes twice as much.
  • Cache repeated preambles If you send the same instructions or reference material every time, use prompt caching to reduce input costs.

There are also safeguards against overspending. A linked organization is placed at least at the Start usage tier, and Start's monthly spend limit is $500. You can set lower limits yourself, both for the whole organization and for each workspace. A workspace is a division for separating API keys and limits by project. However, you can't set a limit on the Default workspace that exists from the start.

The monthly spend limit resets on the 1st of each calendar month (UTC), while the credits are granted per billing cycle. Because the dates don't line up, check both dates when setting limits precisely.

How the content you send to the API is handled is governed by commercial terms separate from claude.ai, and by default it is not used to train models (for details, see "How to opt out of Claude Code training").

8. What the terms say

When you link an organization, Anthropic's Supplemental Credit Terms apply. Use of the API itself is governed by the Commercial Terms of Service. These are the points worth knowing:

Transfer and saleCredits can't be transferred or sold, and only the account holder may use them (Supplemental Credit Terms).
Cash valueThey have no cash value and are not refundable (Supplemental Credit Terms).
ExpiryPromotional credits expire on the date stated when they are issued. They also expire if you close your account (Supplemental Credit Terms).
TrainingAnthropic does not train models on customer content received through the API (Commercial Terms).
Prohibited usesUsing it to train competing AI models and reselling without approval are prohibited (Commercial Terms).
Key sharingDon't share your account login or API keys with others (claude.ai's terms of service).

Using the credits for your own projects is fine, but handing your key to someone else or letting the credits be used for other people's work goes against the terms.

Summary

Max and Team plans come with monthly API credits, but you don't receive them until you link a Console organization on the claude.ai billing page. They can be used for the API, Message Batches, Managed Agents, the Agent SDK, the Playground, and claude -p run with a Console API key. They can't be used for interactive Claude Code or for extra usage in the apps, and they don't change your Claude Code usage limits.

You can't change the linked organization yourself, and an organization can receive credits from only one plan. Before claiming, decide which organization you'll develop in. After claiming, check your auto-reload setting and where you keep your API key. Since unused credits don't roll over, having both regular monthly work and work that soaks up the remainder keeps them from going to waste.

FAQ

Q. Do I get them on the Pro plan?

A. No. Only Max 5x, Max 20x, and Team (including discounted Team plans) are eligible; Free, Pro, and Enterprise are not.

Q. The option to claim doesn't appear.

A. Check that 7 days have passed since you subscribed, that you are the Max subscriber yourself (or an Owner on Team), and that you are signed in to the Console with the same email as on claude.ai. Because the credits are being rolled out gradually over several days, they may not have reached you yet. If the option still doesn't appear, the official guidance is to contact support.

Q. Can I change the linked organization later?

A. Not by yourself. You need to contact support.

Q. Do unused credits roll over to the next month?

A. No. They expire at the end of the billing cycle (monthly, even on annual billing).

Q. Can I use them with Claude Code?

A. Not for interactive sessions. You can use them for claude -p or the Agent SDK run yourself with a Console API key. Usage from the desktop app, IDE extensions, or GitHub Actions is not covered, even with -p.

Q. If the credits run out, is my plan charged?

A. No. If you have no other credits, API requests simply stop. If you have purchased credits left, those are used, and if auto-reload is on, more are bought.

Sources

I checked the original text of all official specifications and terms on October 10, 2026. The screen record is from a single claim I made on a Max 20x plan on the same day. What the screens show and how they are worded may vary with time and language settings.