Guide · Anthropic

Anthropic API spend limits: what your cap is and how to lower it

Anthropic's monthly spend cap depends on your usage tier. You can set a lower one. Neither of those is a daily cap on a single key.

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The short answer

Anthropic's rate-limits page gives each of the Start, Build, and Scale tiers a monthly spend cap: Start $500, Build $1,000, and Scale $200,000. Organizations on the Custom tier have no monthly spend cap. Limits for Custom are arranged with their account team. New organizations, and organizations with limited usage history, may start in the Evaluation tier, with limits below the standard caps on that page. Anthropic places organizations on a tier automatically. [1]

You can view the monthly spend cap and set your own lower limit on the Billing page in the Claude Console. That limit cannot exceed the current tier's cap. [1]

How to find your tier and current cap

Open the Rate limits page in the Claude Console, platform.claude.com/usage/limits. Anthropic says that page shows your organization's tier and current limits. The Billing page, platform.claude.com/settings/billing, is where you view the monthly spend cap and set your own limit. [1]

The same monthly caps apply on Claude Platform on AWS. Billing there goes through AWS Marketplace, and the Request tier increase flow is not available. Per-workspace rate limit configuration is not available on Claude Platform on AWS. [1]

How to set a lower limit

Anthropic's steps for a limit below the tier cap are on the Billing page: [1]

  1. In the Claude Console, go to the Billing page (platform.claude.com/settings/billing).
  2. In the Spend limits section, click Adjust limit, or Set limit if no limit is currently set.
  3. Enter a new value. Your spend limit cannot exceed your current tier's cap.

Workspace limits

The same page says you can set custom spend and rate limits for each workspace. If a workspace limit is not set, it matches the organization's limit. Organization-wide limits always apply, even if workspace limits add up to more. Anthropic also says you can't set spend limits on the default workspace. [1]

A workspace limit you do set is still monthly. It can stop that workspace before the organization cap, and the organization cap still applies to everyone else.

Spend Limits API

POST /v1/organizations/spend_limits sets a spend limit. For a Claude Console organization the scope is organization or workspace. Anthropic says those Console limits are monthly and always carry an amount. The amount is a decimal string in the minor unit of the billing currency. For USD that is cents, so "50000" is $500.00. A workspace scope also needs the workspace id. [2]

Setting organization and workspace limits through this API is an early-access preview. Anthropic says to contact your account team to request access. The curl example on that page is a Claude Enterprise user limit, which is a different scope. Listing Console limits is also an early-access preview, and list requests send the beta header spend-limit-reads-2026-09-26. [2]

{
  "amount": "50000",
  "scope": { "type": "organization" },
  "period": "monthly"
}

What happens when you hit the cap

Once you reach the tier's spend cap, API usage pauses until 00:00 UTC on the first day of the next month, unless you get a higher limit sooner. While it is paused, requests return HTTP 429. The error type is rate_limit_error. On the Messages API, error.details.error_code is enforced_spend_limit_reached. That 429 has no retry-after header, so retrying, including the SDK's automatic retries, keeps failing until access resumes. [1]

const body = await response.json();
const code = body.error?.details?.error_code;
if (response.status === 429 && code === "enforced_spend_limit_reached") {
  // Tier spend cap. Anthropic sends no retry-after header.
  // Retrying, including SDK retries, fails until 00:00 UTC on the 1st
  // unless the organization gets a higher limit.
}

A lower limit you set yourself is not that 429. Anthropic says those requests return HTTP 400 with error type invalid_request_error. The message starts with "You have reached your specified API usage limits", or "You have reached your specified workspace API usage limits" for a workspace limit, and it states when access resumes. Raise or remove the limit to restore access sooner. [1]

One exception is on the page: limits on the Claude Code workspace are checked separately, and Claude Code requests over that workspace's limit can instead receive a 429 that carries a retry-after header. [1]

Why a monthly cap isn't enough for a leaked key

A monthly organization cap still lets a stolen key spend until that cap. A workspace limit can be lower, and the organization limit still applies on top of it. The default workspace cannot have a spend limit, so a key left there is held only by the organization cap. [1]

Give each app its own workspace and its own key, then set a workspace spend limit under the organization cap. Add a per-key daily alert so a quiet key that starts spending is visible the same day, not at the monthly cap. The daily budget guide covers what a daily check looks like. The Railway breach guide is the checklist if a key may already have been copied. Disabling the key itself is in the leaked-key guide.

Add a per-key daily alert and kill switch

BillCurfew's Anthropic support uses the Admin API, and that API is for organization accounts only. An individual Claude Console account cannot list keys or read the usage report. The product reads GET /v1/organizations/usage_report/messages grouped by API key and model. That report returns tokens, not dollars, so the dollar figure is an estimate from Anthropic's published token prices.

It polls about every five minutes and emails you when a daily cap or a spike rule trips. Slack alerts are on paid plans. A manual kill works on every plan, including Free. It sets the key inactive with POST /v1/organizations/api_keys/{id}. That disable is reversible. The same call with status active turns the key back on. Auto-kill is on Solo, Team, and Agency only, and it stays off until you turn it on.

This is not a proxy, and it does not set Anthropic's spend limit. A loop can still spend until the next poll. The provider cap is what stops the very next call. BillCurfew is the second clock. The Claude runaway-cost guide is the longer note on the usage report. Plans are on pricing.

Start free with one key, no card.

FAQ

Is the default Anthropic API spend limit $200,000?

Anthropic's docs list $200,000 as the monthly spend cap for the Scale tier. Start is $500 and Build is $1,000. Check your tier on the Rate limits page in the Claude Console.

What happens when I hit my Anthropic spend cap?

API requests return HTTP 429 with error_code enforced_spend_limit_reached and no retry-after header, until 00:00 UTC on the first day of the next month unless you get a higher limit.

Does hitting the cap reset?

The tier cap pauses API usage until 00:00 UTC on the first day of the next month, unless you get a higher limit sooner. A lower limit you set yourself is different: those requests return HTTP 400, and Anthropic says to raise or remove that limit to restore access sooner.

Can I cap a single API key?

Not in these docs. Anthropic's rate-limits page and Spend Limits API describe organization and workspace spend limits. They do not describe a spend cap on one API key. A workspace limit can be lower than the organization cap. The organization cap still applies.

Does a spend limit stop a leaked key immediately?

No. A stolen key can keep spending until the cap. Separate workspaces with their own limits and a per-key daily alert with a kill switch limit the damage sooner.

How is this different from OpenAI project limits?

Anthropic's documented spend cap is monthly and applies to the organization, with optional lower organization and workspace limits. It is not a daily cap on one key. OpenAI's project spend limit is a different control, and it is not a per-key daily cap either. The details are in the OpenAI per-key guide.

Sources

Last checked: . Tier caps, the Billing page steps, the default-workspace restriction, the 429, and the 400 are from the rate-limits page. The Spend Limits API's early-access status, scopes, and cent amounts are from that API reference.

  1. Anthropic, Rate limits. https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/api/rate-limits
  2. Anthropic, Spend Limits API. https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/api/beta/organization/spend_limits
  3. Railway, Preliminary Report: Oct 21st Security Incident. https://blog.railway.com/p/preliminary-report-october-security-incident