[BUG] **Claude Code stuck on "Credit balance too low" after credits were added — no way to recover without manual credential deletion**

[tomadventury-afk]

Preflight Checklist

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

What's Wrong?

Claude Code stuck on "Credit balance too low" after credits were added — no way to recover without manual credential deletion

Environment

• Claude Code v2.1.76
• OS: Ubuntu (Hetzner VPS)
• Auth: API Usage Billing (Organization: active, credits visible)
• Runtime: Bun, managed via PM2 + tmux

What happened
Credits ran out during an active session. $100 was added via platform.claude.com/settings/billing. The billing dashboard confirmed $97.47 remaining balance immediately.

However, Claude Code continued to reject every input with:

Credit balance too low · Add funds: https://platform.claude.com/settings/billing

This persisted for over one hour despite the credits being clearly available on the platform.

The real problem: unrecoverable state
The critical issue is that there was no way to fix this from within Claude Code:

• claude logout → Claude launches, hits the billing error immediately, never reaches the logout flow
• claude config → Same behavior, blocked before any command runs
• No way to clear cached auth/billing state through the CLI

The only fix was to manually delete ~/.claude/.credentials and re-authenticate with claude login.

Impact
This is a production blocker for anyone running Claude Code as a persistent agent (24/7 via PM2/tmux). If the billing cache gets stale, the entire system is bricked with no CLI-accessible recovery path.

Workaround

rm -rf ~/.claude/.credentials
claude login

What Should Happen?

Expected behavior

• Claude Code should re-check billing status periodically, not cache it indefinitely
• CLI commands like logout, login, and config should work regardless of billing status
• At minimum, there should be a claude auth reset or similar escape hatch

Error Messages/Logs

Credit balance too low · Add funds: https://platform.claude.com/settings/billing

Steps to Reproduce

Run out of API funds

Claude Model

Sonnet (default)

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

No response

Claude Code Version

Claude Code v2.1.76

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Ubuntu/Debian Linux

Terminal/Shell

VS Code integrated terminal

Additional Information

No response

[yurukusa]

I run Claude Code as a persistent agent in tmux sessions (months of continuous operation), so I've hit similar stale-state issues.

Your workaround of deleting ~/.claude/.credentials is correct. For anyone running Claude Code as a long-lived agent, here's a defensive pattern:

# In your PM2/supervisor restart script, add a health check
# that detects this specific error and auto-recovers:
if claude --version 2>&1 | grep -q "Credit balance too low"; then
  rm -f ~/.claude/.credentials
  claude login  # re-authenticate
fi

A few additional notes from running persistent sessions:

1. claude logout being blocked by the billing check is the real bug here — CLI management commands should never be gated behind billing status. This affects any automated recovery logic.
2. The billing state appears to be cached locally with no TTL or refresh mechanism. Even restarting the Claude Code process doesn't trigger a re-check.
3. For PM2 users specifically: pm2 restart alone won't fix it since the cached state persists on disk, not in memory.

Agreed that a claude auth reset command (or at minimum, making claude login/claude logout always accessible) would make persistent agent deployments much more robust.

[github-actions]

Found 3 possible duplicate issues:

1. [BUG] Claude Code low credit balance after top up. #31537
2. [BUG] Rate limit blocks all commands including /status after upgrading to Max plan #31655
3. [BUG] Credit balance incorrectly reported as "too low" despite $821 remaining credits Claude Code WEB #11486

This issue will be automatically closed as a duplicate in 3 days.

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🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically closed as a duplicate of #31537.

If this is incorrect, please re-open this issue or create a new one.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[EMarkODell]

work-around does not work for me, not least because there is no file ~/.claude/.credentials to delete ... infuriating problem, cost hours and hours of lost time

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically locked since it was closed and has not had any activity for 7 days. If you're experiencing a similar issue, please file a new issue and reference this one if it's relevant.