Claude Max and Team Monthly API Credits: Amounts, Claiming and Coverage
As of 2026-10-08, Claude Max 5x includes $100, Max 20x $200 and Team up to $500 a month in Claude API credits (launched by Anthropic on 2026-10-07). You claim them by linking a Claude Console organization to your plan; they work with the Claude API, Managed Agents, the Agent SDK and the Playground, Anthropic states they do not cover Claude Code, and unused credits expire at the end of each billing cycle with no rollover. This page walks through the claim steps, the spending order and what happens when they run out, point by point from Anthropic's docs, Help Center and credit terms.
Updated 2026-10-08
Four key numbers and rules
Max 5x / Max 20x per month
From the official table: $100 a month on Max 5x and $200 on Max 20x; the Help Center lists the plans themselves at $100 and $200 per month. Annual plans also receive the credits monthly.
Team pool cap
Team gets $20 per Standard seat and $100 per Premium seat, pooled into one monthly balance capped at $500. Anthropic's example: three Standard and two Premium seats receive $260 a month.
What they cover
Covered: the Claude API (Messages and Message Batches), Managed Agents, the Agent SDK and the Playground. Not covered: interactive Claude Code in the terminal, IDE, desktop or web, and extra usage in the Claude apps.
Expiry
Credits arrive once per billing cycle (monthly on annual plans), and anything unused expires when the cycle ends. They appear in the Console under Promotional credits with the amount and expiry date.
What these credits are
As of 2026-10-08, Claude Max 5x, Max 20x and Team plans (including discounted Team plans) come with monthly Claude API credits of $100, $200 and up to $500 respectively. To claim them, you link a Claude Console organization to your plan; from then on the credits arrive in that organization every billing cycle for building and running your own applications and agents, and no payment method is needed on Claude Platform. They apply only to the Claude API in the Claude Console and cannot be used on Claude Platform on AWS, Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud, Microsoft Foundry or other platforms; Free, Pro and Enterprise plans are not eligible. The Help Center says they work with any available Claude model on the Claude Platform.
The 2026-10-07 update and the fine print
Anthropic's platform release notes for 2026-10-07 say: “Claude Max and Team plans now include monthly API credits.” The same day, the Help Center article on the Agent SDK was updated: the Agent SDK monthly credit announced in June is no longer available, and the new API credits cover the Agent SDK, the Claude API and Managed Agents instead. Team credits are based on the seats on the plan at the start of each billing month, the first month included; Anthropic's example is $260 a month for three Standard and two Premium seats, rising to $360 the next month after one more Premium seat is added. Organizations linked to an eligible plan move up to at least the Start usage tier, and those with more than $200 in monthly credits to at least the Build tier; otherwise claiming does not change the tier, and these credits do not count toward moving up. The rate-limits page lists a monthly spend cap of $500 for Start and $1,000 for Build.
Timeline
According to a 2026-09-25 web archive copy of the Help Center article Use the Claude Agent SDK with your Claude plan, an “Update June 15” note announced that the planned changes to Agent SDK usage were paused and that the monthly credit announced alongside them would not be made available.
The platform release notes add monthly API credits to Claude Max and Team plans; the Help Center says the same day that the Agent SDK credit from June is no longer available and that the new credits cover the Agent SDK.
This page was checked against the official pages on this date; the Help Center says the credits are rolling out over a few days, so some accounts may not see them yet.
Confirmed vs not stated by Anthropic
Confirmed (verbatim in the official pages)
All of the following can be checked word for word on Anthropic's pages: eligible plans are Max 5x, Max 20x and Team (including discounted Team plans); the amounts are $100, $200, and $20 or $100 per Team seat pooled up to $500; new subscribers can claim after 7 days on the plan; you link one Console organization, each plan links to only one, and you cannot change it yourself; the credits cover the Claude API, Managed Agents, the Agent SDK and the Playground, but not Claude Code or extra usage in the Claude apps; included credits are spent before purchased ones; they expire at the end of each billing cycle with no rollover; usage is never charged to your Claude plan; and the Supplemental Credit Terms (the version effective 2024-03-04) say credits cannot be transferred or sold and have no cash value.
Unverified and not published by the vendor
Three things have no checkable official sentence, so this page does not state them: (1) how long the program will run, since neither the docs nor the Help Center give an end date or term; (2) the exact day the offer reaches your account, as the Help Center only says it is rolling out over a few days; (3) any estimate of how many requests the credits buy, because Anthropic gives no conversion and says only that monthly cost depends mainly on the model you choose and how often your application runs.
Included credits vs credits you buy in the Console
Monthly credits included with the plan
Issued with a Max or Team plan every billing cycle, with no payment method needed on Claude Platform. They cover only the Claude API, Managed Agents, the Agent SDK and the Playground, not Claude Code, and expire at the end of the cycle with no rollover. You see them under Promotional credits in the Console, and they are spent first.
Credits you purchase
Bought under Settings > Billing in the Console; the Help Center says they cover API access, Playground usage and Claude Code. They expire one year from the purchase date, the date cannot be extended, and purchases are non-refundable. Auto-reload looks only at the purchased balance and tops it up when it falls to your threshold, even while included credits remain. If you want Claude Code billed through the Console, this is the kind that covers it.
How to claim (Max and Team)
Step one, check eligibility: a Max 5x, Max 20x or Team plan that is active and in good standing and has been held for at least 7 days; plans bought through the iOS or Android app count, but you claim on claude.ai in a web browser. Step two, check roles: on Max you must be the subscriber, on Team a Primary Owner or Owner; in the Console organization that receives the credits you need the Owner, Admin or Billing role, and if you have no organization yet you can create one during the claim flow. Step three: on claude.ai open Settings > Billing (Max) or Organization settings > Billing (Team), choose the receiving Console organization in the API credits section, review the Supplemental Credit Terms and click Link organization. Step four: in the Console under Settings > Billing, check the amount and expiry date in the Promotional credits section, then create an API key and send your first request. Step five: every API key and workspace in the organization shares the balance, so give a project its own workspace with a spend limit if you want to cap it. Step six: you cannot change the linked organization yourself, so pick the one you will actually build in; changing it later goes through Anthropic support. The Help Center also suggests signing in to the Console with the same email you use on claude.ai.
On QCode
These credits have nothing to do with QCode and cannot be moved to it: Anthropic says they work only with the Claude API in the Claude Console, and the credit terms forbid transferring them. The QCode docs likewise state that an Anthropic subscription cannot be used through QCode and is never consumed by it, and QCode usage does not touch your subscription quota. QCode is a separate per-token key (it starts with cr_ and is copied from API Key Management in the dashboard), with each model's price on /models; plans have a daily cap, meaning a ceiling on API spend per day, which resets at 00:00 Beijing time. In Claude Code, set ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=https://api.qcode.cc/api and put your cr_ key in ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN; Claude models run only on this Anthropic-protocol endpoint. QCode is prepaid: you top up your balance first, then buy a plan.
Frequently asked questions
How much API credit do Claude Max and Team include each month?
$100 a month on Max 5x, $200 on Max 20x and up to $500 on Team. Team is counted per seat: $20 per Standard seat and $100 per Premium seat, with discounted Team plans such as Nonprofit and Scientists counted the same way, all pooled into one balance capped at $500 and based on the seats at the start of each billing month. Upgrading from Max 5x to Max 20x gives you prorated credits right away, then $200 each billing cycle.
Can I use these API credits in Claude Code?
No. Claude Code is the first item under what the credits do not cover in Anthropic's docs; the Help Center spells it out as interactive Claude Code in the terminal, IDE, desktop or web, and extra usage in Claude, Claude Code or Claude Cowork is excluded too, because the credits are meant for building your own apps and agents on the Claude Platform. The Agent SDK, by contrast, is covered. If an organization holds only these credits and sends a Claude Code request, Claude Code shows “Credit balance too low · Add funds: https://platform.claude.com/settings/billing”.
Do unused credits roll over, and what happens when they run out?
They do not roll over: unused credits expire at the end of each billing cycle (monthly on annual plans). When they run out and the organization has purchased credits, requests continue on the purchased balance, and auto-reload, if turned on, tops that balance up. With no credits left at all, API requests stop until your next monthly credits arrive, usage is never charged to your Claude plan, and requests return “Your credit balance is too low to access the Anthropic API. Please go to Plans & Billing to upgrade or purchase credits.” To keep going, buy credits or turn on auto-reload in the Console.
How do included credits and credits I buy in the Console work together?
Included credits are spent first, then purchased ones. Auto-reload is triggered only by the purchased balance: it reloads when that balance reaches your threshold, even if included credits remain. Coverage differs too: purchased credits cover the API, the Playground and Claude Code and expire one year after purchase, while included credits exclude Claude Code and expire with the cycle. Usage paid with included credits still counts toward your organization's monthly spend cap, which resets on the first of each calendar month, while the credits follow your billing cycle.
Why don't I see API credits in my settings?
The reasons the Help Center gives are that you have not reached 7 days yet or the rollout has not reached you: new subscribers can claim after 7 days on an eligible plan, and the Help Center says the credits are rolling out over a few days. Also check three things: the plan must be Max or Team (Free, Pro and Enterprise are not eligible); you need the right role (the Max subscriber, or a Team Primary Owner or Owner); and the plan must be active and in good standing. Subscribers who are not eligible do not see the section at all; if you meet every condition and still do not see it, contact Anthropic support.
Can these credits be moved to QCode or another platform?
No. Anthropic says they work only with the Claude API in the Claude Console, not on Claude Platform on AWS, Bedrock, Google Cloud or Microsoft Foundry, and they cannot be split across several Console organizations; the credit terms state “Customer may not transfer or sell Credits, whether paid for or provided as part of a promotion, to any other person or entity”, and credits have no cash value. The QCode docs likewise state that an Anthropic subscription cannot be used through QCode and is never consumed by it; running Claude on QCode goes through QCode's own per-token plans.
Sources
Amounts, eligible plans, claim steps, coverage, spending order, expiry and run-out rules, and plan changes: the Claude Platform docs page API credits for Max and Team plans and the Help Center article Monthly API credits for Max and Team plans. Launch date: the Claude Platform release notes. Relationship to the June Agent SDK credit: the current Help Center article Use the Claude Agent SDK with your Claude plan and a web archive copy of it from 2026-09-25. Coverage and expiry of purchased credits: the Help Center article on paying for Claude API usage. Transfer and cash value: Anthropic's Supplemental Credit Terms. Usage tiers and monthly spend caps: the Rate limits page in the Claude Platform docs. Max plan prices: the Help Center article on the Max plan. QCode's approach: the QCode docs pages on subscriptions versus API keys, the FAQ, endpoints and API paths, and payment methods. All crawled 2026-10-08.
Claude and GPT on one per-token key
Billed per token, with each model's price on /models; separate from your Claude subscription and its included credits.
Related reading
Claude Pro / Max vs an API key
Whether a subscription can be used as an API, and how a subscription login differs from an API key in Claude Code.
Credit balance is too low in Claude Code: 2 causes
Console credits ran out, or a Console API key overrides your plan, and how to fix each.
Claude weekly limit 2026
The weekly limit resets at a fixed time per account, separate from the 5-hour window.
Quotes and figures on this page were checked on 2026-10-08; Anthropic's official pages (platform docs, Help Center and credit terms) prevail, and upstream changes may happen without notice. Amounts, eligibility and coverage are set by Anthropic, so rely on the billing settings on claude.ai and the Billing page in your Console; model availability is whatever /models shows.