[BUG] Billing: Max 5x plan incorrectly downgraded to Free mid-cycle, double-charged $230
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?
My Claude Max 5x subscription was silently cancelled mid-cycle on 30 May 2026 with no warning,
no email, and no failed payment. I had to repurchase the same day ($115, invoice P69GJBDX-0007)
to restore access. The very next morning (31 May) my account was downgraded to Free again,
despite the second active invoice. As of 1 June I have been on the Free plan for the entire
weekend having paid $230 total.
When I contacted support, the Fin agent referenced a known billing issue from 28 May as the cause.
Account email: frankdanielviljoen@gmail.com
Invoice 1: P69GJBDX-0006 — $115, paid 16 May 2026 (Max 5x, covers 16 May–16 Jun)
Invoice 2: P69GJBDX-0007 — $115, paid 30 May 2026 (Max 5x, covers 30 May–30 Jun)
Current status: Free plan
What Should Happen?
Account should remain on Max 5x for the full paid period. No mid-cycle downgrade should occur
without a failed payment, cancellation action, or advance notice. A refund or credit of $115
should be issued for the duplicate charge caused by the billing system error.
Error Messages/Logs
Steps to Reproduce
- Subscribe to Claude Max 5x
- Wait — no user action required
- Account is silently downgraded to Free mid-cycle (triggered by apparent billing system bug around 28 May 2026)
- User is forced to repurchase to restore access
- Account downgraded again the following morning despite active invoice
Claude Model
None
Is this a regression?
Yes, this worked in a previous version
Last Working Version
_No response_
Claude Code Version
Claude Max 5x plan
Platform
Claude.ai
Operating System
macOS
Terminal/Shell
Terminal.app (macOS)
Additional Information
NOTE: This is a claude.ai subscription billing issue, NOT a Claude Code bug. Filing here
because support@anthropic.com has not responded in 3+ days and the Fin AI agent cannot
escalate to a human billing specialist.
This appears to be related to a known platform-wide billing incident around 28 May 2026
(referenced by Fin support agent). At least one other user reported the identical issue
(GitHub issue #56895).
Please escalate to human billing team urgently. Lost multiple days of business work.
7 Comments
Found 3 possible duplicate issues:
This issue will be automatically closed as a duplicate in 3 days.
🤖 Generated with Claude Code
This is not a duplicate. This is a real issue affecting my business and I
am getting no help from the customer support team.
Do not cancel this because it needs to be made public that the customer
support team is unresponsive and this issue is affecting a lot of business
critically.
Sincerely,
Frank Viljoen
Mobile: +27 76 350 2904
On Mon, Jun 1, 2026 at 10:03 PM github-actions[bot] <
@.***> wrote:
I am experiencing the exact same critical provisioning bug, but with an even worse outcome.
Here is my timeline:
June 9, 2026: Subscribed to the Claude Max tier. The payment went through perfectly, and the invoice status in my billing history is marked as "PAID".
June 16, 2026: After just one week, the UI completely downgraded me back to the Free Plan.
The Double Charge: Thinking there was a glitch or that the first payment hadn't registered properly, the system allowed me to execute the payment a second time. I paid again, but the backend completely ignored BOTH of my active payments. I am still stuck on the Free Plan today.
Troubleshooting done so far (all failed):
Logged out and logged back in using the manual email/magic link method instead of Google/Apple OAuth.
Cleared browser cookies, session data, and hard-refreshed cache.
Tested on multiple clean browsers and incognito mode.
Restarted router to clear any potential IP/DNS caching issues.
Checked the Billing section, but the UI is locked—there is no option to update card details, only buttons to pay again.
To top it off, the official Intercom/Fin support bot on the website has completely stopped responding (ghosted me) mid-conversation.
This is a severe backend database desync between Stripe/Link and Anthropic's user entitlements. We are literally getting wrongfully double-charged for a service we cannot access. It's causing massive downtime for my production development workflow.
Has anyone from Anthropic acknowledged this specific loop yet?
My issue was resolved and I was refunded for the period of my subscription I did not have access to.
Mine was a billing issue from my bank so call your bank and make sure they haven’t flagged anthropic/claude payments as fraud. That was my situation. Anthropic took longer to reply than I had hoped but they were very helpful once they replied.
I know it’s painful but I would recommend calling your bank and continuing to email support@anthropic.com and asking for a real person to help.
Hope this helps.
I am experiencing something similar: I was expecting to revert back to Pro plan which is paid until December 2026. Instead, I reverted to Free plan.
Same issue. On July 1, 2026, my $120 account credit disappeared during checkout when resubscribing to Max 5x after my gift subscription expired. I was charged €108.90 out of pocket.
Anthropic support acknowledged in writing that this was a "known billing system error on July 1, 2026 affecting multiple customers" and that credits "require investigation and manual intervention" — but no channel has been able to restore them.
13 days without resolution.
Ticket #215474899766000 (opened June 30 — 9 days no response)
Ticket #215475016949656 (opened July 9 — no resolution)
Account: [emilianoterzi@googlemail.com](mailto:emilianoterzi@googlemail.com)
Plan: Max 5x, claude.ai web, Spain (EU)
Screenshot of $120 credit visible in Billing minutes before it disappeared available on request.
<img width="1170" height="966" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/83344dd4-2ef5-405e-aac6-5f1ae529436b" />
My Claude Max 5x gift subscription was silently downgraded to Free plan less than a week after activation on June 26, with zero notification. The irony? I still receive marketing emails from Anthropic announcing "Fable 5 is now part of your plan" — while my account is on the Free tier and cannot access any paid features at all