[BUG] Unable to access Claude Code after successful OAuth login with Google account

Found 3 possible duplicate issues:

1. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/18688
2. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/9371
3. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/5244

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🤖 Generated with Claude Code

I've tried: Firefox, Chrome, Edge, restarting my machine, different Windows install methods, Claude Code in terminal & Claude Code in VS Code. I've not found any workaround yet.

EDIT: To clarify the repro steps, the error appears in the browser like this (not in the terminal):

<img width="718" height="203" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/df014931-150e-4789-9e0a-53f29eef16a5" />

I have the same issue

Same issue, What de funk?

Same issue on a team account. Other members can login just fine, but no luck on my end. Have tried on multiple devices as well.

Same issue here on Team plan.

Found that it only affects members who already had Claude accounts before I bulk invited them. New users who never had Claude before can log in fine. Tried both Google OAuth and email login - same error. Switching devices doesn't help either.

Workaround that worked for me: Remove the member from your team, then re-invite them. After that they should be able to log in normally.

Same issue here on Team plan. Found that it only affects members who already had Claude accounts before I bulk invited them. New users who never had Claude before can log in fine. Tried both Google OAuth and email login - same error. Switching devices doesn't help either. Workaround that worked for me: Remove the member from your team, then re-invite them. After that they should be able to log in normally.

This is the solution.
My teammate had to delete the account that they had created with their org account.
Remove from team > Delete that account > Reinvite & setup account

same issue on team plan

I'm not sure this is limited to just members that already had a Claude account. I can sign-in to the website and desktop app, but not Claude Code CLI or Claude Code for VSCode. I get the same "Unable to access Claude Code" message and I never had a Claude account prior to being invited to my org's team plan. I have a co-worker in the same boat.

Windows 11 (25H2)
PowerShell 7.5.4
VS Code:
Version: 1.108.1 (user setup)
Commit: 585eba7c0c34fd6b30faac7c62a42050bfbc0086
Date: 2026-01-14T14:55:44.241Z
Electron: 39.2.7
ElectronBuildId: 12953945
Chromium: 142.0.7444.235
Node.js: 22.21.1
V8: 14.2.231.21-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26200

Same issue.
MacOS
Claude Code 2.1.14
Team plan

Same issue.

In my case, the login was successful on the first attempt: I logged in through the terminal, connected to the VS Code extension, and started a session. But then, after a few minutes of normal usage, I was suddenly disconnected, and the same error described above started appearing in the browser when trying to login again -- super weird behavior if you ask me. Now I can't use it neither in the CLI nor in VS Code.

Linux (Ubuntu 24.04)
Claude Code 2.1.15
Team plan

Same issue here on Team plan. Found that it only affects members who already had Claude accounts before I bulk invited them. New users who never had Claude before can log in fine. Tried both Google OAuth and email login - same error. Switching devices doesn't help either. Workaround that worked for me: Remove the member from your team, then re-invite them. After that they should be able to log in normally.

This workaround worked for me as well

Ok solved here, and my guess is that it is the root cause in most cases.

My team admin checked in the Admin Settings → Organization → Members and for me the seat tier was "Unassigned". Changing it to Standard (back again) solved the login problem for me.

Probably that's the reason others could work around the problem by re-adding the affected accounts, because their seat tier goes normal in the new account.

For Claude's team, I suspect there is an unexpected behavior sitting in the seat management logic, because firstly I _did_ was assigned to Standard seat, and later on it switched to Unassigned out of nowhere in the middle of my first session... Probably this sudden switch was caused by a new team member being added or some team members setting being changed (couldn't confirm that). Therefore my best guess would be to check for unexpected events on that part of the system.

Cheers!

Solution

✅ Credit to @ro-oliveira95 for highlighting the solution above (☝️ ), which was also the root cause of my issue:

My team admin checked in the Admin Settings → Organization → Members and for me the seat tier was "Unassigned". Changing it to Standard (back again) solved the login problem for me.

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Context

I use a single email address, which now currently has 2 active accounts (_Personal - Free plan_ vs _<ORG_NAME - Team plan_).

Prior to migrating over to the Team subscription plan, the _Personal_ account was my only active account, and what I had been using initially with the _API Console Billing_ plan with my organisation.

Then my organisation switched from the unlimited API Console Billing plan to the subscription based Team plan, to which an new invite was sent out to my email address, and to which I had accepted.

That then led me to observe two active accounts under my email address (_Personal_ vs _Team_).

So i logged out of Claude Code and attempted to log back in again using the "subscription" login path in the Claude Code terminal, and that was when i received the auth error.

So in essence, my root cause issue was that when i was switched over to the Team subscription plan, my Seat Assignment status was defaulted to "Unassigned", which has since been adjusted, where i was then next able to authenticate into Claude Code subscription login path.

All this without having a new invite sent to my email, nor having to delete my now-redundant Personal - Free Plan account that was used with the API Console Billing plan

---

References

You can read more about the Seat Assignment types over on Purchasing and managing seats on Team plans

Root cause in at least some cases: the CLI authorizes whichever account is active in the browser's Claude.ai session, and fails opaquely if that account has no Claude Code seat.

I hit this exact error and tracked it down. My browser was logged into Claude.ai with my org account (Team plan, but no seat assigned to me), while I intended to log in with my personal subscription account. The OAuth handoff silently adopted the active browser session, authorized the seatless org account, and returned "There was an issue accessing Claude Code."

Logging out of Claude.ai in the browser (or running the OAuth flow in a private window) and re-authenticating with the correct account resolved it immediately — no CLI reinstall or update needed.

The problem is the error message, not the behavior. The CLI clearly has enough information at the point of failure to know which account it tried and why it was rejected (no seat). A message like:

This account (user@example.com) doesn't have a Claude Code seat. Sign in with an account that has an active seat, or contact your org admin.

would turn a 30-minute detour into a 10-second fix. The current generic string gives no indication that account selection is even the issue, which sends people down the reinstall/update/logout path documented in the FAQ — none of which addresses the actual cause.

Suggested fix: surface the authenticating account identity and the specific rejection reason (no seat / seat inactive / wrong org) in the failure message.

Environment: Team plan org account (no seat) vs. personal subscription account; multiple Claude.ai accounts; auth via browser OAuth.

I'm experiencing the same issue.

After a conversation in Claude Code, a safety-related popup appeared and my session was switched from Opus 5 to Opus 4.8. After that, the Code tab disabled entirely, leaving only the Home tab. Restarting the app didn't restore it.

For context, I was asking Claude to review websites that I built myself for my own clients. The sites are protected by a WAF, and after that discussion the UI entered this broken state.

Based on other reports here, this looks like the same bug rather than an account or permission issue. Adding my experience to help confirm that it's reproducible.

Platform: Claude Desktop (Windows)