Manage usage credits for Team and seat-based Enterprise plans (original) (raw)

This article explains how Team and seat-based Enterprise plan Owners and Primary Owners can purchase usage credits, allowing members to continue using Claude, Claude Cowork, and Claude Code after reaching usage limits for their assigned seat.

What are usage credits?

Usage credits allow Team and seat-based Enterprise plan members on Standard and Premium seats to continue working with Claude, Cowork, and Claude Code after reaching their included usage limits. Instead of being blocked upon hitting limits, members can keep working without interruption.

How usage credits work

After an organization Owner or Primary Owner configures your account for usage credits, you'll start using them as soon as you reach your seat's usage limit. Your subsequent usage will be billed at standard API pricing rates as you continue working.

For Team plans: Owners can pre-purchase usage credits that they can control using spend limits.

For seat-based Enterprise plans: Usage credits are billed at the end of each month based on your actual usage during the billing period.

Enable usage credits

For Team owners

For seat-based Enterprise owners

How can members switch to usage credits once they're enabled?

Once an organization owner has enabled usage credits:

Organization-wide spend limits

Owners and Primary Owners of Team and seat-based Enterprise plans can set organization-wide spend limits to ensure predictable costs while providing flexibility for critical work.

Spend limits

After navigating to Organization settings > Usage and enabling this feature, Owners can set a monthly spend limit on the entire organization's usage credits. Setting a limit here controls total usage credit spend across your whole organization, regardless of individual or seat limits.

The Usage and spend limits section will show the current limit (if any) or Unlimited. Clicking on "Adjust limit" opens a modal where you can either input an amount and click "Set spend limit," or click "Set to unlimited" to remove the organization-wide monthly spend limit.

Changes to your organization’s overall spend limit go into effect immediately.

Seat spend limits for seat-based Enterprise plans

Owners and Primary Owners on seat-based Enterprise plans only can set spend limits that apply to all users within a specific seat tier.

Select the "By group" tab to see Standard seats and Premium seats groups. Click the "..." icon next to the current limit, then "Edit limit." This opens a modal where you can either select "Set dollar amount" and input an amount, or click "Unlimited" to remove the limit for that seat type. Click "Set limit" to save your changes.

User-level spend limits

Owners and Primary Owners can also set individual monthly spend limits for each member by finding Spend limits by user and clicking the "..." button next to the user, then "Edit limit."

Enter the amount and click "Set limit." Alternatively, selecting "Set to unlimited" will remove that member's monthly spend limit (they will still be subject to any organization or seat-level spend limits).

This allows owners fine control over usage credits, so you can set limits for different members based on their roles or individual needs. Once a user reaches their defined spend limit, this will automatically pause their usage credits until the end of the month. They will need to wait for their usage limits to reset before using Claude again.

Note that the Spend limits by user section has a MTD Spend column, so you can track members' usage patterns and optimize seat assignments.

Usage credit pricing

Usage credits are billed at standard API rates; see our pricing page for details.

Price and plans are subject to change at Anthropic's discretion.

Request usage credits for seat-based Enterprise plans

Members of seat-based Enterprise plans will see a "Request usage credits" link upon hitting their included usage limit.

Click this to send a request to organization Admins to either switch you to a Premium seat (if you're currently assigned to a Standard seat) or enable usage credits for your user account. This will change to Request sent to admin after clicking it, indicating that you submitted a request for a seat tier increase or usage credits to an organization Admin.

Admins and Owners can review these requests in Organization settings > Usage. Clicking into "Review requests" will open a modal where each requester is listed, along with their current seat, and the time they asked for more usage. Click "Increase limit" next to each request you want to approve. Admins and above will also receive a daily email including all your organization's outstanding requests.

Disable usage credit requests

If you want to prevent users from submitting requests for usage credits, an organization owner can follow these steps:

Frequently asked questions

What happens when I reach my spend limit?

If your account is configured for usage credits and you exceed your set spend limit, you won't be able to use Claude, Cowork, or Claude Code again until the next billing period, or until your limits are adjusted.

Why was I able to exceed my spend limit?

It's possible to slightly exceed your defined spend limit. Our system checks if you're within your limit before you're allowed to make a single request or send a message. Once the request is processed, we calculate your token consumption, which means you may bypass your limit with that request. Once this happens, any subsequent requests will be blocked.

Can usage credits be disabled completely?

Yes, Owners and Primary Owners can choose to disable usage credits entirely, which means that members of the organization will be unable to continue working once they reach their usage limits and will need to wait for them to reset.

What is the Enterprise plan?How am I billed for my Enterprise plan?Use Claude Code with your Team or Enterprise plan View usage analytics for Team and Enterprise plans Purchase and manage seats on Enterprise plans