Anthropic Gifts API Credits to Max and Team Subscriptions
Anthropic stated in its help documentation that Max and Team plans will include monthly credits for the Claude Platform, intended for integrating Claude into their applications and agents. Free, Pro, and Enterprise plans are not eligible. The documentation was updated on October 7, and the distribution will be rolled out over several days.
The amounts are fixed by tier. Max 5x is $100 per month, Max 20x is $200 per month. Team standard seats are $20 each, premium seats are $100 each, with non-profit and scientist discount plans priced the same. All Team seats combine into a single balance, with a team cap of $500. Three standard seats plus two premium seats total $260 per month, with the pool calculated based on the number of seats at the time of distribution. Adding another premium seat will increase the next cycle to $360.
New subscriptions must be active for 7 days before a claim entry appears. Subscriptions can be made via web, iOS, or Android, but claims must be completed on the web version of claude.ai. There is no need to pre-link a card on the Claude Platform. Max users can access Billing in Settings, while Team owners or primary owners can access Billing in Organization settings, click Link organization under API credits, select an existing Console organization or create a new one, and agree to the terms for additional credits to receive them. Only one organization can be linked, and each organization can only receive credits for one plan; users cannot change the linked organization and must contact support for changes.
The credits cover Messages API, Batch API, Playground in Console, Claude Managed Agents, and Claude Agent SDK, and can be used for any available models on the platform. They do not cover interactive Claude Code in terminals, IDEs, desktops, or web, nor do they cover overages for Claude, Claude Code, or Claude Cowork, and do not cover Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud Vertex AI, or Microsoft Foundry. Users can run claude -p with the API key associated with their organization, which counts as Agent SDK usage and can use the credits. When logging in with the plan, the plan limit still applies.
The credits refresh with each billing cycle, and annual plans are also billed monthly. Unused credits do not roll over and expire at the end of the cycle, and they are consumed before any purchased credits. All API keys within an organization share the same balance. This does not change the usage limits for chat, Claude Code, and Cowork. Once exhausted, if no credits are purchased or auto-renewed, requests will stop until the next month and will not be charged to the subscription bill. After cancellation, downgrading to an ineligible plan, or refunds, new credits will stop, but existing credits can be used until expiration. The Agent SDK credits announced in June are not part of this allocation and are no longer available.
The buyers are developers who have paid for Max and Team but have not yet opened a separate API billing account, while the seller is the Claude Platform, which still charges by token. This is a trial driven by subscription credits, not a price reduction for the API. Funds are drawn from the chat seats to create a maximum monthly balance of $500, promoting a single Console organization. The beneficiaries are small teams looking to try Managed Agents and Agent SDK, while the burden falls on overages outside the credits for conversations, interactive Claude Code, and similar calls on Bedrock and Vertex.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
Anthropic first sold Claude as a chat subscription, with API charges handled separately through Console prepayment. In June 2026, it paused the billing for Agent SDK usage and stated that it was still deducting from subscription limits at that time. The October 7 documentation separates the paths: interactive Claude Code continues to consume plan limits, while Messages API, Managed Agents, and Agent SDK provide Max and Team with a non-transferable monthly credit. The SDK credits from June are explicitly stated as no longer available.
Funds are locked within a single organization. Max 5x at $100, Max 20x at $200, and Team at $20 or $100 per seat, combined to a team cap of $500. Three standard seats plus two premium seats total $260, and adding one premium seat brings it to $360 for the next cycle. Claims require 7 days of activation, and no card linking is needed, with unused credits not deducted from the subscription. Unused credits expire, making the balance more like a monthly trial fund rather than a prepayment that can be accumulated. Only one Console organization can be linked, and changing organizations requires support, making trials easy to enter but difficult to exit.
This is similar to cloud providers tying free credits to paid accounts. Amazon Cloud's free tier and OpenAI's trial credits for new developers allow calls to occur first, with automatic renewals after the credits are exhausted. Anthropic remains in the conversion phase for subscription users, not offering it for everyone: Pro and Enterprise are excluded, and Claude cannot be used with this money on Bedrock, Vertex, or Foundry. Once credits are used up, requests will stop unless credits are purchased or auto-renewal is activated.
Essentially, this is a transfer of pricing power. The price of chat seats covers conversations, while the price of the API covers calls embedded in other products. The mechanism places a maximum monthly balance of $500 into paid bills, allowing users to run agents in their own Console first. Credits do not roll over; they stop when unused, and the next token bill is still issued by the platform.
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The credits in the subscription are meant to nurture calls to maturity.
The non-transferable credits will be spent before expiration.
Trials can be used without linking a card, but renewals will still go through the original billing.