Anthropic has begun issuing monthly Claude Platform API credits to Claude Max and Team subscribers, but the new allowance does not cover interactive Claude Code usage.
The change was introduced alongside the company’s Claude Haiku 5.5 announcement. Under the new structure, Max 5x subscribers receive $100 in monthly credits, while Max 20x subscribers receive $200. Team plans receive pooled credits based on seat type: $20 for each standard seat and $100 for each Premium seat, with a combined cap of $500 per team. Anthropic said the rollout will happen in batches this week. Free, Pro, and Enterprise plans are not included.
Where the credits can be used
In a post from ClaudeDevs, Anthropic said it is rolling out monthly Claude Platform API credits for Max and Team plans. The company said the credits work on any model, including Haiku 5.5, and can be used in code or in third-party harnesses.
According to the details cited in the report, eligible products include the Claude API through Messages and Message Batches, the Console Playground, Claude Managed Agents, and the Claude Agent SDK. Model choice is not restricted.
The credits do not apply to interactive Claude Code, whether it is used in the terminal, an IDE, the desktop app, or the web. They also do not cover extra usage beyond plan limits for Claude, Claude Code, and Cowork. Claude usage through Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud Vertex AI, and Microsoft Foundry is excluded as well.
Anthropic also said the credits do not raise the usage limits attached to the subscription plan itself.
How claude -p is billed
The report said one of the easiest places for users to get tripped up is the billing treatment of claude -p, which depends on how the command is run.
- If a user runs it with an API key from a linked Console organization, the usage is treated as Agent SDK usage and draws from the monthly credit.
- If the user runs it while signed in with a subscription account, the usage continues to count against the subscription allowance.
- If it is launched through the Claude Code GitHub Action, an IDE extension, or the desktop app, it is always counted as Claude Code usage, and the monthly API credit does not apply even with -p.
In other words, the same command can be billed differently depending on whose key is used and what initiates the run.
Eligibility and account linking
Eligibility begins after a subscription has been active for seven days. Users can claim the credits by linking their plan to a Console organization through the billing settings page on the claude.ai website. Anthropic does not require a credit card to be added to Console in advance. Users who subscribed on mobile are also eligible, but they still need to claim the benefit on the web.
There is one account-linking restriction: one plan can be connected to only one Console organization. After the link is made, users cannot change it on their own and must contact customer support if they want to switch.
Refresh cycle and spending order
The credits are reissued every billing cycle and do not roll over. Anthropic said the system spends the promotional credits first, then uses any self-funded balance.
All API keys inside the same organization share the same pool. If a team wants to control who can spend from it, that has to be managed through workspace spending limits in Console.
The report said additional details are available in Anthropic’s official documentation.