Anthropic’s published terms provide monthly Claude Platform credits with eligible Max, Ultra, and Team plans: $100 for Max, $200 for Ultra, and up to $500 pooled for Team. These are credits for specified Platform services, not free Claude chat access or a general free API allowance. Free, Pro, and Enterprise plans aren’t eligible. Confirm your plan and account meet the claim requirements below before counting on the balance. (Anthropic’s monthly API credit terms)
Which Claude API credits can you claim?
| Eligible plan | Published monthly credit | Team allocation and important conditions |
|---|---|---|
| Max | $100 | The subscriber claims the credit. |
| Ultra | $200 | The subscriber claims the credit. |
| Team | $20 per Standard seat and $100 per Premium seat, pooled and capped at $500 | All seats’ credits go into one organization balance. The calculation uses the seats on the plan when credits are granted. |
Discounted Team plans are also eligible under Anthropic’s published terms. Free, Pro, and Enterprise plans are not. Unused monthly credits expire at the end of the billing cycle; for annual plans, they refresh and expire monthly rather than rolling over. (Anthropic’s monthly API credit terms)
Team example: Three Standard seats and two Premium seats produce a pooled monthly balance of $260: (3 × $20) + (2 × $100). The balance is capped at $500, and the seat count is evaluated when credits are granted. (Team plan billing FAQ)
The credits cover the listed Claude Platform services, including Claude API usage. They do not cover Claude Code or extra usage in the Claude apps. They are not a Claude chat subscription discount, and you should not assume they apply to a separately billed cloud-provider route or a third-party platform. Check that provider’s own billing terms. (Anthropic’s monthly API credit terms; Anthropic Support on API billing)
Who can claim the credits—and how?
New subscribers can claim after seven days on an eligible plan. To receive the credit, link a Claude Console organization to your subscription; the credit is deposited into that organization.
- Max or Ultra: You must be the subscriber on the Claude plan.
- Team: You must be a Primary Owner or Owner of the Team plan.
- Console organization: You need the Owner, Admin, or Billing role in the organization receiving the credits.
Use Anthropic’s official credit-claim guidance to link the organization. The exact in-product navigation and confirmation steps, and whether a Claude Platform payment method is required, are not specified here; check that guidance before claiming.
Choose the Console organization carefully: you can link only one to your plan, and each Console organization can receive credits from only one plan. You cannot change the linked organization yourself; contact Support if you need to change it. (Anthropic’s monthly API credit terms)
How much API usage can the credit cover?
Anthropic lists Claude API prices in USD per million tokens (MTok). For example, the cited pricing page lists Claude Sonnet 5.5 at $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens on the standard Claude API route. Check the current price for your chosen model and route before budgeting. (Claude API pricing)
Worked example: Suppose an application makes 10,000 requests in one credit period. Each request uses 2,000 input tokens and generates 500 output tokens, with no prompt caching or other pricing adjustments.
- Input: 10,000 × 2,000 = 20 million tokens; 20 × $2 = $40.
- Output: 10,000 × 500 = 5 million tokens; 5 × $10 = $50.
- Estimated total: $90.
Under those assumptions, $100 in credits covers the estimated usage, with about $10 remaining. At the same token mix, $100 covers roughly 11,111 requests. This is a calculation, not a usage test or guarantee. Actual token counts and applicable pricing features can change the bill; recalculate with measured usage and current prices.
Are monthly credits suitable for production?
They can help fund a prototype or bounded workload, but a limited balance that expires monthly is a risky sole funding plan for a service that must keep running. Subscriber credits are spent before any credits you have purchased. If the monthly balance runs out but purchased credits remain, those purchased credits are used for API and playground usage. If you run out of credits altogether, API calls and playground use stop until you add more. (Anthropic Support on API billing)
A credit balance does not establish the throughput or rate limits available to a particular account or model; check those separately. For production, estimate usage against current prices and the credit’s expiry, monitor the balance, and arrange paid credits or another budget if interruption is unacceptable.
- Experimenting or prototyping: Credits can help when expected usage fits comfortably within the balance.
- A production pilot: Use them only if you can tolerate interruption or have a paid fallback.
- A service that must remain continuously available: Budget for paid API usage; don’t assume monthly credits roll over or cover usage beyond their balance.
Bottom line: Anthropic’s published monthly API credits are available to eligible Max, Ultra, and Team subscribers who link a qualified Console organization. Confirm the plan and account roles, remember that Claude Code and extra Claude-app usage are excluded, and keep a paid fallback if service continuity matters.
Sources
- Anthropic Support, Monthly API credits for Max, Ultra, and Team plans
- Anthropic Support, How do I pay for my Claude API usage?
- Anthropic Support, How is my Team plan bill calculated?
- Anthropic, Claude API pricing
Sources
Monthly API credits for Max, Ultra, and Team plans
How do I pay for my Claude API usage?