Claude sets a one-year expiry for new usage-credit purchases

Anthropic is adding an expiry date to paid usage credits for individual Claude subscriptions. Its consumer credit terms, marked effective November 6, generally give purchases made on or after December 7, 2026 a lifetime of 12 months from purchase. Any unspent amount is removed when it expires. The cutoff follows the credit purchase date, rather than when a subscription began.

These are the extra credits that Pro, Max and Ultra subscribers buy to keep using Claude beyond their included allowance. The rule covers one-time purchases, bundles and automatic reloads. Under the general policy, credits bought before December 7 retain their existing indefinite lifetime.

Residence changes the terms. Usage credits have no expiration for residents of Canada or Taiwan. For residents of Japan, purchases made on or after September 10, 2026 expire six months after purchase. The 12-month rule is the general policy for locations without a listed exception.

For credits purchased from December 7 onward, the balance with the earliest expiry is used first. Expiry dates appear in Settings under Usage, and Anthropic says it will email customers before purchased credits expire.

Three balances with different clocks

Extra usage is charged separately from the subscription at standard API rates. The price list checked November 7 lists Opus 5.5 at $4 per million input tokens and $20 per million output tokens; Sonnet 5.5 costs $2 and $10 respectively. Consumption therefore depends on the model and the amount of text processed and generated. These are current metering rates, not a newly announced price increase.

The subscription allowance still has its own limits. Anthropic’s pricing guidance says activity across web, desktop, mobile and Claude Code shares that allowance, with five-hour windows for most accounts and weekly limits on paid plans. Enabled usage credits provide a paid continuation after included usage runs out. Customers can set a monthly spending cap and configure automatic purchases when the balance falls below a chosen threshold.

Monthly API credits included with Max, Ultra and Team are a separate balance for building on the Claude Platform. They do not cover interactive Claude Code or extra usage in Claude and Cowork. Unused monthly credits expire at the end of the billing cycle without rolling over. They are spent before purchased credits in the linked Console organization, and annual subscriptions receive them monthly. New subscribers can claim after seven days by linking a Console organization. The new consumer purchase window does not extend that monthly benefit.

Business prepaid credits already have separate terms. The business credit terms, marked effective March 4, 2024, give usage credits one calendar year from the confirmation notice or issuance. Those business credits have no cash value and cannot be transferred or sold to another person or entity. That existing arrangement is distinct from the newly dated consumer policy. Describing the change as the first expiration rule for all Claude API credits would therefore misstate its scope.

The refund guide says ordinary subscription cancellation or account deletion does not refund usage-credit purchases, and consumed credits are never refunded. It preserves exceptions for legally required refunds of unused credits and fraud. A separate passage covers upgrading from Pro, Max or Ultra to Team: prepaid credits on the individual account are refunded, alongside a prorated refund of the remaining subscription period. The subscription refund is issued about 24 hours after the Team payment, with additional bank processing time. For iOS subscribers, the documented route is to cancel through Apple first and then join Team.