Claude Max includes $200 a month in API credits. Most people never click the button.

How I found it

I was in billing settings for something unrelated and there it was: "Your Max plan includes $200 a month in API credits", with a "Link and claim $200" button. I use Claude all day and write about it most weeks, and I had no idea. I asked Claude to open the browser and claim it. The Console now shows $200.00 in promotional credits on my company's organization, expiring 13 November 2026, the end of my billing cycle.

Who gets how much

New subscribers can claim after 7 days on an eligible plan. Plans bought through the iOS or Android app are eligible, but you claim on claude.ai in a web browser. If you don't see the section at all, you are either not eligible or it hasn't reached your account; Anthropic says to contact support if you think you should see it.

It is not more Claude Code

This is the part most people will assume wrong. The credits cover the Claude API, Claude Managed Agents, the Claude Agent SDK and the Playground. They do not cover Claude Code or extra usage in the Claude apps. Claude Code keeps running on your plan's usage limits exactly as before, and the credits don't change those limits.

So the useful way to think about it: a separate budget for things you build. For me that means the small automations that run on their own (a daily Telegram digest, an email that kicks off a task), which today draw from the same limit I work with all day. Moved to an API key on the linked organization, they get their own $200 and my limit stays mine.

If an organization holds only these credits and you point Claude Code at it, Claude Code shows Credit balance too low. That is expected, not a bug.

Two things to decide before you click

The link is one-time

Each plan links to one Console organization, and each organization can receive credits from one plan. You can't change the link yourself, only through support. Link the organization you will actually build in. I linked my company's organization rather than a personal one.

Use it or lose it

Credits arrive each billing cycle (monthly on annual plans) and expire at the end of it, with no rollover. Included credits are spent before any credits you bought. When they run out and you have no purchased credits, API requests stop until the next month; nothing is ever charged to your Claude plan.

How to claim

1. On claude.ai, open Settings › Billing (Max) or Organization settings › Billing (Team; Owner or Primary Owner).
2. In the API credits section, pick the Console organization (you need Owner, Admin or Billing there; you can create one in the flow).
3. Click Link and claim and accept the credit terms. No card is needed on the Console.
4. Check platform.claude.com/settings/billing: the amount and expiry date appear under Promotional credits. Create an API key and go.

Small things worth knowing

• Every API key and workspace in the linked organization draws from the same balance. Give a project its own workspace with a spend limit if you want to cap it.
• Linking moves the organization to at least the Start rate-limit tier (Build tier if the credit is over $200). The credits don't count toward climbing tiers.
• The credits work only in the Claude Console API, not on Bedrock, Google Cloud, Microsoft Foundry or Claude Platform on AWS.
• To stretch them: a smaller model where it's good enough, prompt caching for repeated context, and the Batches API (50% cheaper) for anything that can wait.