[BUG] Cannot purchase API credits - card approved by bank (3DS passed) but Stripe declines

Update: the error message has now changed to
"Cannot upgrade to prepaid without a valid payment method"
even before entering any card details.
This suggests the account billing state is corrupted on your side.
Please investigate the account directly.

i have the same issue! tried different credit cards. nothing works.

I just created a new account with a different email. used the same credit card and it worked.
so maybe this could be a quick fix for you!

I had the same issue. I logged out and in and then it worked. Worth trying.

Any updates on this? Same problem

Nope no update and bug persisting.

buf persisting on my side too...

Same here...

Same here

For anyone coming here, try logging out from Link and entering your card details manually

Workaround that resolved this for me (Germany, April 2026):
Root cause in my case was not Anthropic but Stripe's "Link" feature holding on to a previously declined card. Even after selecting a different payment method, Stripe kept retrying the old one silently.
Steps that worked:

1. Open the Anthropic billing page in a private/incognito browser window (no stored Link session)
2. On the checkout screen, click "Change payment method"
3. Actively disconnect / log out of Link on that screen
4. Enter card details manually (do not let Link pre-fill)

Payment went through on the first attempt.
Note: I had tried the same cards repeatedly over several days through the normal flow without success. The difference was isolating the checkout from any existing Link session.
Reported to Stripe support directly, as this appears to be a Link-side issue rather than an Anthropic one, but sharing here since this thread is where people searching for the error land.

Same issue here (Japan, Max plan).

Payment was working fine until Japanese Consumption Tax (JCT) was added in April 2026.
After that, all card payments started failing — authorization doesn't even reach the card issuer.
Multiple cards from different networks tried, same result.

Previously had a long-running paid Max subscription with no issues.

As a workaround, I downgraded to Pro and subscribed via the Android app (Google Play)
to bypass Stripe entirely.

Just got the same issue here: Belgium Mastercard(s).
Last succesful bill was previous month, today our platform suddenly stopped working without "10% left" warnings. Our Mastercards had plenty of prepaid left.

Tried to purschase 6$ with my personal (non master-) card and it worked just fine. Not that that helps since my company can't legally pay me back and we only have mastercards so we can't buy more api credits. Because of this our entire platform has to fallback to different models now which directly takes turnover away from Anthropic.

Edit: TWolff669's solution worked! Though I had to go to link.com in order to delete my cards, anthropic's platform didn't have the "logout option" likely because I had already tried some other things.

So my updated guide would be:

1. Open the Anthropic billing page in a private/incognito browser window
2. Click the "update payment setting" button (pencil) next to the "buy credits" button
3. Check what email is connected to >Link.
4. Go to link.com, log in with that email (email verification code)
5. Delete all cards there
6. Back the Anthropic billing page
7. Click the "update payment setting" button again
8. Fill in all your info, avoiding Link autofill

Edit 2: This only seemed to work once with mastercard, when we used a non-mastercard and then a mastercard again, now it broke again :/.

cannot purchase upgrade plan. same problem. different errors displayed every time.

Same issue here — Hungary, Revolut + traditional bank card both failing
I'm experiencing the exact same bug described in this issue.
My situation:

Country: Hungary
Cards tried: Revolut Visa (new card, replaced a cancelled one) + Raiffeisen traditional bank card
Goal: purchase API credits on console.anthropic.com
3DS authentication completes successfully on both cards
Error after authentication: "Payment failed. Please try again."

What I've tried:

Replaced the Revolut card with a new one (old one was cancelled)
Added a completely separate Raiffeisen bank card
Multiple browsers, cleared cache
Submitted a support ticket 2–3 days ago — only received an automated bot response so far, no human follow-up

Current status: Account appears to be in a blocked billing state after multiple failed attempts. I cannot purchase any credits and cannot work.
This is a serious issue for paying developers. Please escalate — the support queue is clearly overwhelmed and this bug has been open for weeks.

I have an issue too but Anthropic Console says that my card is declined because I made multiple attempts too frequently which is not true. This was my very first time only.

I verified that my payment details are correct.
I verified that I have very sufficient funds in my bank account to buy the $5 in api credits.
I received the SMS OTP from my bank to verify the transaction.

So I don't understand where this problem is coming from.

It is best to start the payment again in a secure (private) browser, e.g. "Safari private window". During the payment process, do not accept "Link" as payment method. If this is automatically selected, then reset it or delete the payment method. That's usually where the error lies. "Link" has saved your payment information, but does not pass it on or incorrectly. Then a booking of €0.00 or dollars comes and in the end it cannot be booked.