[BUG] API Error: Rate limit reached on Max plan with ~5% usage

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• [x] This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• [x] This is a single bug report
• [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

Every request returns "API Error: Rate limit reached" despite being on a Claude Max plan with only ~5% usage consumed. This started immediately on a brand new context session today.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Open Claude Code (v2.1.87) — either in VS Code or terminal
2. Send any message (e.g. "hello")
3. Immediately get "API Error: Rate limit reached"

What I've tried:

• claude auth logout + claude auth login (logout itself returned the rate limit error from within Claude Code, had to run from external terminal)
• Starting a fresh session
• Running from terminal instead of VS Code
• Forcing a specific model: claude --model claude-sonnet-4-20250514
• All models return the same error

Environment:

• Claude Code v2.1.87
• Sonnet 4.6 (default), also tried specifying claude-sonnet-4-20250514
• Claude Max plan
• ~5% usage at time of error
• macOS
• VS Code + standalone terminal both affected

Expected behaviour:
Requests should succeed — account is well within usage limits.

Actual behaviour:
Every single request immediately returns "API Error: Rate limit reached" regardless of model, session, or client.

This appears to be an account-level server-side issue, similar to #29579, #33094, and #33120.

What Should Happen?

Use Claude Code as per my plan

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

See above

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

Claude Code (v2.1.87)

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

Terminal.app (macOS)

Additional Information

_No response_