Anthropic is starting to give Claude Max and Team subscribers a monthly allotment of API credits: $200 for Max 20x and up to $500 for the entire Team. Pro subscribers are not eligible. (Previously: Anthropic abruptly halts new Agent SDK billing rules; subscription credits could be worth up to 30x) (Background: Testing Claude’s $200 subscription: running everything on Opus 5.5 would use API credits worth $11,700—a 58x difference) That’s an extra $200–$500 per month, but you can’t use it to run Claude Code. Anthropic announced the new policy this morning in a post about Claude Haiku 5.5: Claude Max and Team subscribers can now receive a monthly allotment of Claude Platform API credits. Max 5x gets $100, Max 20x gets $200, and Team gets $20 per standard seat and $100 per Premium seat, up to a pooled maximum of $500 for the whole team. The rollout will happen in batches this week. Free, Pro, and Enterprise plans are not eligible. We’re rolling out monthly Claude Platform API credits for Max and Team plans: Max 5x: $100Max 20x: $200Team: up to $500, pooled Works on any model, including Haiku 5.5, in your code or third-party harnesses. How it works and full terms: https://t.co/qmWL6xVGwr — ClaudeDevs (@ClaudeDevs) October 7, 2026 Where you can spend it Eligible uses include the Claude API (Messages and Message Batches), the Playground in Console, Claude Managed Agents, and the Claude Agent SDK. Any model is supported. Ineligible uses include interactive Claude Code (whether in the terminal, IDE, desktop app, or web), extra usage beyond the plan limits for Claude, Claude Code, and Cowork, and Claude on Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud Vertex AI, or Microsoft Foundry. These credits also do not increase the usage limits of your subscription. The easiest place to get tripped up is claude -p, which has three different scenarios. If you run it yourself using an API key from a linked Console organization, it counts as Agent SDK usage and draws from these credits. If you sign in with your subscription account, it continues to count against your subscription usage. If it’s launched by the Claude Code GitHub Action, an IDE extension, or the desktop app, it always counts as Claude Code usage and is not covered, even with -p. The same command can be billed to different accounts depending on whose key is used and who launched it. The requirements to claim the credits are simple: your subscription must be at least 7 days old, and you need to link your plan to a Console organization on the billing settings page of claude.ai. You don’t need to add a credit card in Console first. Subscriptions purchased on mobile are also eligible, but you must claim the credits on the web. One thing to watch out for: each plan can be linked to only one Console organization, and you can’t change the link yourself afterward. You’ll need to contact support to switch organizations. The credits are reissued each billing cycle and do not roll over. They’re used before your own prepaid balance, and all API keys in the organization share the same pool. To limit who can spend them, you’ll need to set workspace spending limits in Console yourself. For more details, see the (official announcement). Related articles Anthropic launches Claude Haiku 5.5, touting it as its cheapest and fastest small model Anthropic announces Claude support for OpenClaw is back; Agent SDK credits aim to curb subscription arbitrage ChatGPT makes a major move: monthly subscription credits can be used for other apps, with Vercel, Notion, and 14 other partners joining the first wave Anthropic expands startup subsidy program: one year of free Claude Team, with applications open even to startups that haven’t raised venture capital Anthropic cracks down on OpenClaw lobster use with Claude Code subscriptions! Third-party tools will have to use paid credits from now on Nice! Claude announces free monthly API credits for Max and Team subscribers This article was originally published on BlockTempo (動區動趨, the most influential blockchain news outlet).