[BUG] API Error: Rate limit reached on Cowork only - account-specific, persists across machines

I am experiencing the same issue

got the same issue

Same issue, it's affecting more than one account in our enterprise

@muhua-h did it solve after some time? I am really concerned about this issue

Same issue. Becoming really annoying.

Same issue!

Please checkout this issue: https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/33154

Even more people have this problem! Can every of you send the support ticket?

Same issue ongoing for 5 hours now. On Mac OS Tahoe 26.3.1,

@muhua-h , @shinnie06 , @piotr-dot , @KarelNanninga , @josefe-ing and @rubenbisso please go to claude.ai and report this issue using get help. (customer support ticket). We need to raise attention

<img width="242" height="128" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/68b0abec-596b-456c-bc84-cc8bfaf60229" />

same

@prolitariat please report it too

@muhua-h did it solve after some time? I am really concerned about this issue

not resolved

That's sad @muhua-h , did you perhaps write customer support ticket regarding it?

I have filed a customer support ticket around 5 hours ago. Not received any response yet.

@KarelNanninga it's really problematic bug, I would say it significant issue. Any ideas how we can escalate more this problem so it will be noticed?

That's sad @muhua-h , did you perhaps write customer support ticket regarding it?

@thegmitrzuk yes, I did, roughly 12 hours ago, still no reply. My slight worry is that this Issue was generated by Claude Code and didn't really follow Anthropic's template. Would they ignore us for this reason? What's the best way to escalate?

Closing to resubmit with proper bug report template.

Nah @muhua-h the thing that can help is ammount of the comments on the issue!

Please reopen this issue as it provides a lot of context from the user @muhua-h

Resubmitted with proper bug report template at #33293 with all related issue links. This is clearly a widespread server-side issue affecting multiple accounts - see also #33154.

This issue is NOT local/client-side: confirmed by testing on a fresh install, a separate machine, and a different account (which works fine).

I get the same error on cowork when i try to send a message using opus or sonnet. the only model that will respond is haiku

CC is operating as normal in the CLI for me, I just noticed this error when I jumped into cowork

Update: Can confirm that only Haiku works in Cowork. Opus and Sonnet both return the rate limit error. This matches @ChrispyKreme86's finding.

This further suggests the rate limit is being applied per-model tier on the server side, not a general account rate limit.

Exactly, @muhua-h and @ChrispyKreme86, Opus and Sonnet 4.6 do not work at all in Cowork and return instantly the API Error: Rate limit reached. Hope that Anthropic will flag and fix this issue as this makes the entire product ("Cowork") literally unusable for Max subscribers

Update: Can confirm that only Haiku works in Cowork. Opus and Sonnet both return the rate limit error. This matches @ChrispyKreme86's finding. This further suggests the rate limit is being applied per-model tier on the server side, not a general account rate limit.

I can confirm this as well. Only Haiku 4.5 works. Thanks for this because I hadn't changed to that model until I saw this comment.

Having exactly the same issue. It's a blocking bug for me. Claude 1.1.6041 (62e193) on MacOS 15.7.1 (24G231)

Same issue here since about 1h on Windows 10 either latest Cowork.

for the past 24 hours I've had this same issue and can confirm only Haiku 4.5 works.

Any response at all from Anthropic?

@muhua-h , @shinnie06 , @piotr-dot , @KarelNanninga , @josefe-ing and @rubenbisso please go to claude.ai and report this issue using get help. (customer support ticket). We need to raise attention <img alt="Image" width="242" height="128" src="https://private-user-images.githubusercontent.com/29520664/561700609-68b0abec-596b-456c-bc84-cc8bfaf60229.png?jwt=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.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.nrtM3471U3l52F4tfrEY5hMC0Q733UMkOn2Zgjh7Bdo">

I did! No reply from them since, really not a good customer service!!

## Same issue — two separate Max accounts, both permanently stuck ### Environment Plan: Claude Max (2 separate accounts, both with Extra Usage enabled and funded) Platform: macOS 26.3 (Darwin), MacBook Pro M4 Max Claude Code version: 2.1.74 Model: claude-opus-4-6 (1M context) ### What's happening Both of my Max accounts exhibit the identical pattern: 1. Initially worked fine with Opus 4.6 [1m] for several sessions 2. Hit rate limit during a heavy session (multi-agent orchestration, ~8 parallel subagents) 3. Never recovered — even after days/weeks of zero usage Key differentiator: Direct API calls with the same credentials work fine. Only Claude Code returns "Rate limit reached." This confirms the issue is in the Claude Code → proxy routing layer, not the underlying API rate limit. ### Additional data points Extra Usage is enabled and funded on both accounts — budget is not the issue claude logout → claude login does not fix it Fresh sessions after 7+ days of inactivity still fail immediately Subagents (which also get the [1m] flag) are not even involved — a simple prompt in a fresh session fails * Two completely independent Max accounts → same stuck state → suggests server-side bucket corruption, not account-specific misconfiguration ### What I believe is happening The 1M context rate-limit bucket gets into a "stuck" state server-side after being exhausted once. The cooldown/reset mechanism does not work correctly for the [1m] bucket. Once stuck, it persists indefinitely regardless of actual usage. ### Request Server-side reset of the 1M rate-limit bucket state for affected accounts.

People has been complaining about this, no reply from them!
Not good at all. All my scheduled work on cowork are down......

@muhua-h did it solve after some time? I am really concerned about this issue

@thegmitrzuk any changes on your side?

Same issue here, though never activated the 1m context. It works on another machine, with same subscription

Resolved — root cause: Extra Usage balance vs API credits are separate

Symptoms (identical on two separate Max accounts)

• "Rate limit reached" immediately on fresh sessions, even after days of no usage
• Direct API calls with same credentials worked fine
• Extra Usage enabled, API credit balance available

Root cause

Extra Usage (used by Claude Code / Claude.ai for [1m] context) and API Credits
(used by SDK/direct API calls) are separate prepaid balances. My Extra Usage
balance was empty while API credits were funded — the dashboard does not make
this distinction obvious.

Fix

Top up Extra Usage balance separately. Error disappeared immediately.

Note

This may explain a subset of reports in this thread where users have
"available budget" but still hit rate limits — they might be looking
at API credits rather than Extra Usage balance.

@napfen9999 Thanks for sharing the update. Just to clarify in our case: we’re not trying to use Extra Usage or the 1M context models.

We’re attempting to use the regular Sonnet / Opus models (standard context) in Cowork, not sonnet[1m] or opus[1m]. No extra usage is intended.

However, Cowork still immediately returns “API Error: Rate limit reached” when selecting Sonnet or Opus, while Haiku works normally. Claude Chat and the CLI also work fine on the same accounts.

So the issue for us doesn’t appear related to an empty Extra Usage balance — it seems Cowork is forcing or routing requests as if they were the 1M models, which then triggers the rate limit.

@rubenbisso no improvements, still stuck with no possibility to use cowork. How about you?

I am not using Extra Usage as well. Same issue as yesterday. I had a customer service chat with the AI and asked for referral to a human and that did not happen.

Conversation ID: 215473441341002
"We're transitioning your question to one of our human support agents for further assistance. You don't need to keep this window open - we'll email you as soon as an agent has responded."

No email or contact yet. This is frustrating.

Same issue here. Max 20x plan, macOS Darwin 25.3.0, Claude Desktop 1.1.6041.

Key finding from my investigation:

• Cowork Opus/Sonnet → instant rate limit since March 11 ~14:12
• Cowork Haiku → works fine
• Claude Code CLI Opus 4.6 → works fine (same account, same machine, right now)
• Scheduled tasks (cron) are also affected → Opus/Sonnet fail, Haiku passes

Additional angle not yet covered in this thread: Cowork scheduled tasks (cron-based, configured in scheduled-tasks.json) are also stuck in rate limit for Opus/Sonnet. When a scheduled task fails with rate limit, it gets re-triggered at the next cron
interval, creating a retry storm that compounds the issue (though it doesn't actually consume real quota since the error is server-side).

Timeline correlation: The first failure at 14:12 CET matches exactly with the Anthropic "degraded database I/O on Claude.ai" incident (14:17-17:11 UTC on March 11). The incident resolved but the Cowork rate limit state appears stuck.

Support ticket submitted.

I am not using Extra Usage as well. This is very frustrating

Very insightful observations @BuilderCed , I wonder whether this time correlation to another problem is accidental or its basically the same issue. Hope they will flag it

@josefe-ing , exactly, we cannot use Claude Cowork as Max Subscribers, have you submited customer support ticket using Get Help?

> @muhua-h did it solve after some time? I am really concerned about this issue @thegmitrzuk any changes on your side?

No Change, still stuck, no reply from anthropic, it looks we are minority of people for them. what the heck ...

I am not using Extra Usage as well. Same issue as yesterday. I had a customer service chat with the AI and asked for referral to a human and that did not happen. Conversation ID: 215473441341002 "We're transitioning your question to one of our human support agents for further assistance. You don't need to keep this window open - we'll email you as soon as an agent has responded." No email or contact yet. This is frustrating.

Same things , At what bother me a lot most of us are Max Plan user,

@rubenbisso no improvements, still stuck with no possibility to use cowork. How about you?

Same here, I am stuck @thegmitrzuk

Same exact issue here. Max x20 account, using the Mac client. Chat works fine in the app and on the website. Cowork I get "Rate limit reached" immediately on fresh sessions, even after days of no usage. It happens with Opus and Sonnet, but Haiku works fine. I do not have additional usage enabled, and I'm only at 2% of my plan.

The support chat closed the chat twice thinking I was asking for extra usage. I was able to email them directly with the issue but have not heard back. This has been on-going for the past 3 days.

Same exact issue here. Max x20 account, using the Mac client. Chat works fine in the app and on the website. Cowork I get "Rate limit reached" immediately on fresh sessions, even after days of no usage. It happens with Opus and Sonnet, but Haiku works fine. I do not have additional usage enabled, and I'm only at 2% of my plan. The support chat closed the chat twice thinking I was asking for extra usage. I was able to email them directly with the issue but have not heard back. This has been on-going for the past 3 days.

@lattepressdan 3 days, oh my God.
I am already 24h, and I am going crazy, client works on hold. Authropic should improve their customer service because it sucks.

This means the issue doesnt depend on the plan for sure, as I am on the 5x Max Plan, unfortunately still no response from their support

Any other ways we can reach Anthropic?

Any other ways we can reach Anthropic?

I even wrote in one of their post on X. I don't believe it can make a greate difference.

At this point my recommendation is to buy a PC...

Same for me

@muhua-h @shinnie06 @piotr-dot @KarelNanninga @josefe-ing @rubenbisso @prolitariat @spatel4721 @BuilderCed @lattepressdan @dfmarulanda

Seems many of us are hitting the Claude Cowork “rate limit reached” bug despite zero or low usage on Max plans.

Might be worth posting/commenting about it on LinkedIn or X as well so the issue gets more visibility and reaches the Anthropic team faster. Also remember to open support tickets via claude.ai → Get Help so Anthropic can correlate accounts affected

Issue: https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/33120

Our thread is already on the second page of the most commented issues.

@muhua-h @shinnie06 @piotr-dot @KarelNanninga @josefe-ing @rubenbisso @prolitariat @spatel4721 @BuilderCed @lattepressdan @dfmarulanda Seems many of us are hitting the Claude Cowork “rate limit reached” bug despite zero or low usage on Max plans. Might be worth posting/commenting about it on LinkedIn or X as well so the issue gets more visibility and reaches the Anthropic team faster. Also remember to open support tickets via claude.ai → Get Help so Anthropic can correlate accounts affected Issue: #33120 Our thread is already on the second page of the most commented issues.

Go ahead, and tag us here with the link whether on X, or LinkedIn. We will make sure to tag anthropic and claude in the comment alongside with our complains, may be they will take this seriously.

Experiencing the same issue. Cowork returns "API Error: Rate limit reached" on every scheduled task, while Chat works fine on the same account. Issue began after a cache reset during troubleshooting. Running Claude Max plan. This is blocking critical scheduled executive workflows. Requesting a server-side reset of Cowork rate limit state for my account. Happy to provide account details via DM or support ticket.

This is still down, and is frankly unreal - Well I guess we all can understand why it is so important to be responsive to users, as I was a solid Claude users that though they were on par with OpenAI - now I can firmly say that just simply is not true.

Very upsetting as I too have client work on hold, and am now divesting our uses from Claude

Same issue here for Max 5x customer. Code is working just fine, so this is not a "real" usage or rate issue

This is still down, and is frankly unreal - Well I guess we all can understand why it is so important to be responsive to users, as I was a solid Claude users that though they were on par with OpenAI - now I can firmly say that just simply is not true. Very upsetting as I too have client work on hold, and am now divesting our uses from Claude

Very pissed off right now. They don't even care to reply to us. Spend a 100$ sub with zero customer support. This is really the danger on relying too much on AI.

Experiencing the same issue. Cowork returns "API Error: Rate limit reached" on every scheduled task, while Chat works fine on the same account. Issue began after a cache reset during troubleshooting. Running Claude Max plan. This is blocking critical scheduled executive workflows. Requesting a server-side reset of Cowork rate limit state for my account. Happy to provide account details via DM or support ticket.

@DuffManChow likewise, my Cowork fails after I cleared my cache.

Same issue here — Cowork tab, Opus 4.6, Windows

Experiencing the exact same problem. Cowork returns "API Error: Rate limit reached" immediately on every action, even on first message of the day with near-zero usage.

Environment

• Platform: Windows (Claude Desktop)
• Tab: Cowork
• Models affected: Both Opus 4.6 and Sonnet 4.6 — same error on both
• Plan: Max 20x ($200/month, paid subscription active)

Usage at time of error

• Session: 2% used
• Weekly (all models): 52% used
• Weekly (Sonnet only): 0% used

What works

• Claude.ai (web) — works fine, same account
• Claude Desktop Chat tab — works fine

What fails

• Cowork tab — immediate "API Error: Rate limit reached" on any message, on both Opus 4.6 and Sonnet 4.6

Troubleshooting attempted (none resolved)

• claude logout → claude login
• Full uninstall and reinstall of Claude Desktop
• Restarting the app multiple times
• Waiting several hours

Notes

This is clearly a server-side / account-level issue, not a client-side problem. The error appears on Cowork regardless of the model selected (tested on both Opus 4.6 and Sonnet 4.6), even with minimal usage, while other tabs and interfaces on the same account work without issues.

This appears to be the same root cause as #29579, #32544, #29882, #28450, and #32286 — all reporting false rate limit errors despite usage well within plan limits. None of these have received an official response from Anthropic yet.

A server-side investigation and fix would be appreciated.

same. cant' use cowork at all on the $200 plan because of the api limit error (I have tons of credit left). also code crashes all the time; plus opus generally just seems dumb and lazy, even with a full plan it will not do the work. wish we could use 4.5 on cowork or code, since they are more reliable and smarter, but we can't? the opus maxthinking on cursor seems so much more capable than whatever is on code/cowork I can't get anything done.

I have used Haiku for the past 2 days, so I'm not dead in the water with my CoWork tasks and MCPs. But, Haiku reasoning is not as great. Really need this to be fixed.

The same issue started today after the update. Sonnet works, though, but Opus shows a rate limit in Cowork. Chat and Code work fine.

I'm not entirely sure if this works for anyone else but worth a shot.

Settings -> Usage -> Extra usage I had mine off so I turned it on, quit the app and restarted and I no longer get the rate limit error in cowork. If you already had that setting on try turning it off and then restart

Note all: I just downloaded the update released today (you can use the check for update feature) on cowork, and installed it and on restarting after the update this problem was resolved for now. I don't know if it's actually fixed, or if this just reset it and it'll happen again. But at least on the mac client, the update I just installed resolved the issue for the moment.

Note all: I just downloaded the update released today (you can use the check for update feature) on cowork, and installed it and on restarting after the update this problem was resolved for now. I don't know if it's actually fixed, or if this just reset it and it'll happen again. But at least on the mac client, the update I just installed resolved the issue for the moment.

My issue started happening after I updated. Maybe in the next update, they will fix it, or some of the limits will refresh.

> Note all: I just downloaded the update released today (you can use the check for update feature) on cowork, and installed it and on restarting after the update this problem was resolved for now. I don't know if it's actually fixed, or if this just reset it and it'll happen again. But at least on the mac client, the update I just installed resolved the issue for the moment. My issue started happening after I updated. Maybe in the next update, they will fix it, or some of the limits will refresh.

Thats a shame. It may be your issue was different as for me only Haiku worked, both Sonnet and Opus didn't. And I'm not even sure if it's fixed or just reset after I updated and it's bound to come back. Good luck! Hopefully we'll get an official response soon.

I'm seeing the same issue as well. I'm also well below my usage allotment. I have tried most of the troubleshooting mentioned here as well updating. Switching models didn't result in a lot of help either. Some sources indicate this is a server side error, so it's possible this is a "feature" not a bug and Anthropic is letting us "live with it". Would be great to get some actual feedback from them however.

same issue, reported multiple times, even opened a second account and paid for max. That second account I used 13% consumption and ran into the API rate limit error with light chat here and there...

Appears to be fixed with updating to Claude 1.1.6452. Can anyone else confirm?

Appears to be fixed with updating to Claude 1.1.6452. Can anyone else confirm?

OMG, yes, installing the new update fixed the problem. Thank you @jackbackes

Resolved — the issue has been fixed in the latest Claude Desktop update. Cowork is working again on my account. Closing this issue.

I'm seeing the same issue as well. I'm also well below my usage allotment. I have tried most of the troubleshooting mentioned here as well updating. Switching models didn't result in a lot of help either. Some sources indicate this is a server side error, so it's possible this is a "feature" not a bug and Anthropic is letting us "live with it". Would be great to get some actual feedback from them however.

It did resolve for me as well but not directly related to an update. Assuming it was a back end fix.

This issue has been automatically locked since it was closed and has not had any activity for 7 days. If you're experiencing a similar issue, please file a new issue and reference this one if it's relevant.