[BUG] Billing: account holds a second Max subscription that is invisible and uncancellable in the product. Support confirms it is a defect on Anthropic's side, declines to refund, and closed the ticket asking whether it will bill again.
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?
A failed Max 5x checkout retried after cancellation and provisioned a second subscription on my account, overlapping an active Max 20x for the identical period. Anthropic support has confirmed in writing that this second subscription exists, that it is not visible or manageable from the billing page, and that this is a defect on Anthropic's side. It has still declined to refund the charge, and it closed the ticket in which I asked, as a yes or no question, whether that subscription will charge my card again on 5 September.
Five support conversations. Five automated closures. No human review at any stage.
Why this is filed here
There is no other escalation path. The in-app messenger and both support email addresses route to the same automated agent, which closes each conversation and instructs the user to open a new one. This matches the pattern in #57594, #64814, #68429 and #68773.
Timeline
5 Aug 2026 Max 5x checkout failed. The plan never activated. I cancelled it and purchased Max 20x instead, which activated immediately. Max 20x charged, USD 200, period 5 Aug to 5 Sep 2026.
6 Aug 2026 The failed Max 5x payment retried and settled. USD 100 charged, same period, for a plan already cancelled and never activated.
7 Aug 2026 Attempted to cancel the Max 5x. The billing page offers no control for it. The only cancellable plan shown is the Max 20x. Five support conversations opened and closed across two channels.
The product defect
On a single billing page, at the same moment:
- The plan section shows exactly one subscription: Max 20x.
- The invoice section directly below shows two paid charges for the same period: USD 200 and USD 100.
There is no Max 5x listed, no way to view it, and no cancel control for it anywhere in the interface. Its billing period ends 5 September 2026, so it is due to renew, and I have no mechanism to prevent that.
Anthropic's own confirmation
From the support agent, verbatim:
There are indeed two separate subscriptions on your organization for the same period
your account does have a second (Max 5x) subscription behind the scenes, even though it isn't visible or manageable from your billing page
that's a display/reconciliation gap on our end, not something you're missing
the product view not showing the second one is the actual bug here
The defect is not in dispute. It has been stated by Anthropic.
Support handling
Five conversations, across the in-app messenger and both support@anthropic.com and support@mail.anthropic.com. Every one answered by the automated agent within minutes, then closed and marked no longer monitored, with an instruction to open a new request. Reopening restarts the loop.
<img width="768" height="835" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/1e82fb3d-2c74-44bd-8a54-35263be3bed4" />
<img width="1522" height="658" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/08eb9769-0cbf-4629-b459-bcf830c3b467" />
<img width="806" height="826" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/43658884-ac5f-439b-926e-5abcd9754325" />
In one reply, the agent wrote that this was a duplicate subscription situation and that it would move forward with cancelling and refunding the Max 5x invoice. Two paragraphs later in the same message it stated it was unable to process a refund for that same invoice. I asked which statement stood. That conversation was closed.
Each refusal cites refund eligibility terms. None identifies which clause permits retaining payment for a subscription the customer cannot access, view, or cancel. I have asked directly and received no citation.
The closure that matters most
My final ticket asked one question and requested nothing else:
Will the Max 5x subscription charge my card on or around 5 September 2026, yes or no?
That ticket was closed without an answer.
The preceding reply had stated that no further charges should occur on or after 6 September beyond what I can already see and control. The Max 5x renews on 5 September, the day before, and Anthropic has confirmed it is not something I can see or control. The stated answer therefore excludes the exact charge in question.
A support system that cannot tell a customer whether their card will be charged is the core failure here, more than the money.
Also unexplained
The two invoice PDFs carry different billing entities and addresses, despite the same login email and the same card. I have asked three times whether this means two accounts exist and have received no answer.
Three Anthropic records give three different payment dates for the same invoice: the receipt PDF says 6 August, the billing page says 6 August for both charges, and the support agent says 5 August for both.
What I am asking for
Confirmation that the Max 5x is cancelled and will not bill on 5 September, and return of the USD 100 charged for a subscription that delivers nothing beyond the Max 20x already paid for, and which Anthropic has confirmed I could not have cancelled.
Evidence
Both invoice PDFs, billing page screenshots showing one plan alongside two charges, the card statement entry, and screenshots of all five closed conversations including the contradictory reply and the unanswered yes or no question. Available to Anthropic staff on request. Account and payment identifiers withheld from this public post.
What Should Happen?
The billing page should reflect the actual state of the account.
- Every subscription that is billing the customer's card must be listed in Settings > Billing, with a working cancel control. A recurring charge the customer cannot see or stop is not an acceptable state for any billing system.
- A single account should not be able to hold two Max subscriptions covering the same period. This should be blocked at checkout rather than reconciled afterwards.
- A failed payment must not retry and provision a subscription after the customer has cancelled it. Cancellation should invalidate any pending retry for that subscription.
- Rate limits and usage entitlements should match the plan the customer is paying the higher price for. If two subscriptions exist, the account should not be governed by the lower tier while being billed for both.
- The customer should be able to determine, from the product alone, which plan is currently active and what limits apply. At present I cannot tell whether my account is running as Max 20x or Max 5x.
- A direct question about whether a future charge will occur should be answerable, and should never be closed without an answer.
- Where the support agent's own finding contradicts the determination it issues, the case should route to a human rather than auto-close.
Error Messages/Logs
Steps to Reproduce
Observed on claude.ai in Chrome on Android, and reproduced in the same account on desktop. Consumer Max plan, not API.
- On an account eligible for a plan change, begin a purchase of Max 5x. The payment fails at checkout and the plan does not activate.
- Cancel the failed Max 5x from the checkout or billing flow.
- Immediately purchase Max 20x instead. This one succeeds and activates right away. Invoice generated, USD 200, period 5 Aug to 5 Sep 2026.
- Wait roughly 24 hours. The failed Max 5x payment retries in the background and settles, despite the cancellation in step 2. A second paid invoice is generated, USD 100, covering the identical period.
- Open Settings > Billing. In the plan section, exactly one subscription is shown: Max 20x. In the Invoices section on the same page, two paid charges appear for the same period, USD 200 and USD 100. Screenshots of both sections, taken minutes apart, are attached.
- Attempt to locate or cancel the Max 5x. There is no entry for it, no view control, and no cancel control anywhere in the interface. The only cancellable plan is the Max 20x.
- Cancel the Max 20x. The page confirms cancellation on 6 Sep 2026. The Max 5x remains untouched and unlisted, with a renewal date of 5 Sep 2026, one day earlier.
- Use Claude normally. Usage limits are reached significantly faster than the Max 20x tier should allow, on light usage. This suggests the entitlement actually governing the account may not be the plan being billed at the higher rate. I have no way to verify which is active, because only one plan is displayed.
- Contact support through the in-app messenger or either support email address. The agent confirms that two separate subscriptions exist on the organization for the same period, and states that the second one is not visible or manageable from the billing page. The conversation is then closed.
Steps 5 and 6 are the core defect and are observable on any account left in this state. Steps 1 to 4 describe how the state was created and may depend on payment retry timing.
Claude Model
None
Is this a regression?
Yes, this worked in a previous version
Last Working Version
_No response_
Claude Code Version
v2.1.226
Platform
Anthropic API
Operating System
Windows
Terminal/Shell
Windows Terminal
Additional Information
_No response_