Question

"Your credit balance is too low" from the Anthropic API but I pay for Claude Pro

Solved · 381 viewsasked by chen_wei

Building a small summarizer with the Anthropic SDK. First request:

I have Claude Pro and use Claude Code every day. Isn't that the same account?

What I’ve tried

Logged out and in to the console, created a new API key, same error.

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Common confusion, the naming doesn't help. thandeka

2 answers

Marked as helpful by the asker
chidi_eze

Separate products, separate billing. Claude Pro/Max covers the Claude apps and Claude Code when you log in with your subscription. The API (Console, API keys) is pay-as-you-go with prepaid credits. Buy some credits under Billing in the Console and the key will work.

Set a monthly spend limit on the workspace while you're there, and leave auto-reload off until you know your usage.

Comment
ah ok. bought $10. works chen_wei
arash

Related trap the other way round: if you ever export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY in your shell, Claude Code will use that key (and your credits) instead of your subscription. Keep it in the project .env, not your shell profile.

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