Anthropic hands out free monthly API credits to Max and Team subscribers, up to $500 per team

Anthropic has started issuing free monthly API credits to customers on its Claude Max and Claude Team plans. The move lets those subscribers build and run their own applications and agents on the Claude Platform without adding a separate payment method to the Console. Pro, Free and Enterprise subscribers are not eligible.

How much each plan receives

Amounts are tied to the subscription tier. A Max 5x plan receives $100 per month; a Max 20x plan receives $200 per month. Team plans receive up to $500 per month, pooled across all team members. In Team plans the credits accumulate in a shared monthly balance — for example, a team with three Standard seats and two Premium seats receives $260 per month, and adding another Premium seat raises the total to $360 starting the following month.

How it works in practice

To receive the credits, a Console organization must be linked to the eligible subscription plan. Credits arrive each billing cycle; on annual plans they are granted month by month and appear under "Promotional credits" on the Console billing page. New subscribers must wait seven days after joining before they can claim the credits. Purchases made through the iOS or Android apps also qualify, but the claim itself must be completed in a browser at claude.ai.

Limits and expiration

Credits are valid only on the Claude Platform itself — they cannot be transferred to other cloud providers or models. Unused credits expire at the end of each billing cycle and do not roll over. The consumption order is fixed: included credits are used first, and only then does the system draw on any purchased balance. Auto-reload applies only to the purchased balance, even when free credits remain.

Effect on usage tiers

An organization linked to an eligible plan is automatically elevated to at least the Start tier. If its monthly credits exceed $200, it is elevated to at least the Build tier. However, these credits do not count toward promotion to higher tiers; they only establish the floor. The monthly spend cap resets on the 1st of each calendar month, while credits renew on the subscription's billing cycle, so the two are not necessarily synchronized.

What happens when credits run out

If the organization holds purchased credits, requests continue to run against that balance. If no balance remains, requests stop until the next monthly credits arrive. In short, the benefit gives developers building on Claude a comfortable buffer, but it does not replace a proper API budget for production workloads.