[BUG] /model → Fable 5 blocks on usage credits, ignoring active promotional weekly allowance

Additional repro on Windows 11 + Claude Code 2.1.173 (VS Code extension), Max 20x plan — with usage-meter evidence that rules out any limit being hit:

Steps to Reproduce

1. Account shows the in-product promo banner: "Extended: Fable 5 is included in your weekly limit — Through July 12, you can use up to 50% of your weekly usage limit on Fable 5."
2. Account usage panel at the same moment: Session (5hr): 6%, Weekly (7 day): 22%, Weekly Fable: 35% (all resets days/hours away).
3. Select Fable 5 via /model.

Actual Behavior
"Fable 5 requires usage credits — Fable 5 runs on usage credits, billed separately from your plan. You don't have usage credits yet." Only options offered are buying credits or switching to the default model.

Expected Behavior
Fable 5 usable under the promotional weekly allowance (35% consumed, well under the 50% inclusion), matching what the banner promises and what claude.ai web honors.

Additional signal
On a second account (same machine/client) the wall fired with Weekly Fable at 69% — i.e. past the 50% included share — which is consistent with the promo policy working as designed there. That makes the 35% block above look like Claude Code checking only the paid usage-credits balance and never consulting the promotional allowance, exactly as this issue describes. Restarting the client and re-selecting the model did not clear it.

Follow-up with two refinements after continued observation on the same setup (Windows 11, Claude Code 2.1.173):

1. In-flight Fable sessions are honored; only new selection is blocked. Sessions already running on Fable 5 continued to execute and consume the promotional allowance (Weekly Fable meter climbed from 35% to 86% during continued use) with a $0.00 usage-credits balance the entire time. So the server-side entitlement check honors the promotional allowance — the block is purely the client-side selection-time check demanding a credits balance. This confirms the issue's thesis from the opposite direction: the allowance works when the gate isn't consulted.

2. Meter denominator clarification (relevant for anyone triaging with usage screenshots). The "Weekly Fable" bar appears to measure against the promotional Fable allotment itself, not the total weekly limit: with Weekly Fable at 86%, overall Weekly (7 day) simultaneously showed 54% — impossible under a shared denominator since Fable usage counts toward the weekly total. This means my earlier note about a second account blocking "at 69%, past the 50% share" should be read as 69% of the allotment — i.e. that block was also premature, with allowance remaining. Both accounts observed here were blocked at selection time while under 100% of the allotment.

Cross-linking a related data point from #67506: the 50%-of-weekly-limit Fable sub-cap (confirmed via the public July 12 extension policy — "up to 50% of weekly usage limit... at no additional cost, then purchase credits or switch models") doesn't track 1:1 with the top-level weekly usage bar. In my own account, the Fable-specific weekly tracker read substantially higher than the all-models weekly tracker at the same moment — meaning the Fable-only allotment can be much closer to exhausted than the headline number suggests. That could be part of what's behind reports here of Fable getting blocked/throttled while the visible meter still looks like it has headroom: the meter people are checking may be the wrong one.

Hi, I have the same issue :(

I was able to use Fable 5 in my Team subscription (Premium level) until 7th of July. After that, even if the limits was reseted and Fable 5 promo was prolonged I am not able to use it. I am getting the message that Fable 5 requires usage credits and I am automatically switched to default model.

Using Claude Code for VS Code - latest version (2.1.206), tried to reinstall extension and clear cache (removal .claude folder in documents)

<img width="442" height="450" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/6b61fb7c-037c-4295-9c48-beaee63f2518" />

<img width="668" height="257" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/9963e39a-0aea-4130-b46f-6525f7e79529" />

Still reproduces on macOS + Claude Code 2.1.215 (native terminal, not the VS Code extension) — a newer build than any version reported in this thread so far, and now under the post–July 20 permanent billing rather than the promo.

Plan / usage at time of repro (Max):

• claude.ai → Settings → Usage: All models 6% used, Weekly Fable 6% used — i.e. ~94% of the included weekly Fable allowance free, resetting days out.
• claude.ai web honors it fine.

Symptom: /model → Fable 5 shows "Switch to Fable 5? Fable 5 runs on usage credits, purchased separately from your plan." and only offers Continue / keep-current; it will not run Fable against the included weekly allowance — consistent with the client checking the paid usage-credit balance ($0) at selection time and never consulting the weekly Fable allowance.

Corroborates @nratzan's "selection-time only" finding, from the launch side: launching a fresh session already on Fable is honored and runs with no prompt at all —

claude --model claude-fable-5

runs Fable cleanly on the same account/allowance; only the in-session /model switch hits the gate. So a working workaround until this is fixed: start the session on Fable (via --model claude-fable-5, or by setting Fable as the default model) instead of switching to it mid-session.

Net: the bug survived the promo → permanent transition and is unfixed as of 2.1.215, and it's platform-independent (Windows / VS Code reports above + macOS terminal here).

Additional data point: the launch-time workaround suggested above (claude --model claude-fable-5) does NOT hold reliably.

Setup: Claude Code 2.1.215, Max plan.

Repro:

1. Launched with claude --model claude-fable-5 — session started on Fable 5 fine, no credits prompt.
2. Submitted a prompt.
3. Claude Code force-switched away from Fable 5 back to another model mid-session.

This differs from the "selection-time only" theory above (that fresh-launch sessions are honored throughout) — here the session reverted after actually being used, not just at selection. Usage panel at the time showed weekly Fable allowance well under 50% used, so this isn't a real limit being hit.

I have the same issue. Claude Desktop uses fable no issues, cli, as described above. /status shows shows my fable usage and is at 60%.

Windows 11.

Same issue that claude code can use Fable on Mac but not work on my Linux computer, and I am wondering how to restart claude code in linux system.

Fixed

I logged out and logged in again through /logout

Fixed. Can change model, can work. Everything working fine.

I am still experiencing this. No amount of updates / login / logout seems to resolve it. Only adding MONEY to the usage credits seem to resolve the issue and allow me to use the subscription based Fable. Doing this there is no drain to the credits, but I still had to put them there.