If you pay for a Claude Max, Ultra or Team plan, part of what you pay for is easy to miss: monthly credit for the Claude API.
It does not switch on by itself. You link a Claude Console organization to your plan one time. After that, new credit lands in that organization every billing cycle.
- API
- The way your own apps and scripts talk to Claude. It is billed separately from your chat plan.
- Claude Console
- The developer side of Claude, at platform.claude.com. Your API keys, usage and credits live there.
- Organization
- The container inside the Console that holds your API keys and billing. The credit lands in one organization.
Who gets it, and how much
- Max: $100 a month
- Ultra: $200 a month
- Team: $20 per Standard seat and $100 per Premium seat, pooled into one balance and capped at $500 a month
Free, Pro and Enterprise plans do not include it. Your plan needs to be active and in good standing, and new subscribers can claim after 7 days. A plan bought in the Claude iPhone or Android app counts too. Do the steps below in a web browser.
The amounts above come from Anthropic’s page. Your Console shows what your plan actually received.
Claim it in five steps
You need to be the subscriber on a Max or Ultra plan, or a Primary Owner or Owner on a Team plan. In the Console you need the Owner, Admin or Billing role. Sign in to the Console with the same email you use on claude.ai.
- Open billing settings. On claude.ai, go to Settings, then Billing. On a Team plan, go to Organization settings, then Billing.
- Select Link organization. It is in the API credits section.
- Choose the organization. Pick the Console organization that should receive the credit, or create one on the spot.
- Accept the terms. Read the Supplemental Credit Terms, then confirm the link.
- Check the credit. Open platform.claude.com/settings/billing. The credit shows under Promotional credits, with its amount and expiry date.
I linked mine on October 7, 2026, and the credit showed up in the Console afterward.
Pick the organization carefully
Each plan links to one Console organization, and each organization can take credit from only one plan. You cannot change the link yourself later. Anthropic Support has to do it, so link the organization you plan to build in.
After that, it runs on its own
You do not repeat the link. A new batch of credit arrives each billing cycle, shortly after your plan payment goes through. On annual plans it arrives monthly. You do not need to add a payment method to the Console to use it.
Use it or lose it. Unused credit expires at the end of each cycle and does not roll over. After each renewal, glance at Promotional credits in the Console to see the amount and the expiry date.
What the credit pays for
- Covered: the Claude API (including Batch), the Claude Agent SDK, Claude Managed Agents, and the Playground in the Console.
- Not covered: Claude Code, extra usage in the Claude apps, and Claude on Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud or Microsoft Foundry.
Every API key in the linked organization draws from the same balance. If it runs out, API requests stop until the next grant, unless you buy credits or turn on auto-reload. Your Claude plan is never charged for API usage.
Good fits are work you would run through the API anyway: a batch job, a script that sorts or summarizes files, or testing an app you are building. Anthropic says batch work that can wait costs 50 percent less, which stretches the credit further.
Business translation
A plan can carry perks that stay off until someone turns them on. Open the billing page of the tools your team already pays for, and look for anything you have not claimed.
What to take away
- Max, Ultra and Team plans include monthly API credit.
- You link it once, at claude.ai under Settings, then Billing.
- New credit arrives every billing cycle and expires at the end of it.
- It pays for the API, not for Claude Code.
Sources: Anthropic’s API credits for Max, Ultra, and Team plans and its Help Center article, checked November 12, 2026. Amounts and rules can change, so confirm them on those pages.
We watch the model chart. We still build systems that do not depend on one model. Memory, docs, and shared skills let the same workflow jump between Claude, GPT, Gemini, or Grok when the job calls for it.