Claude Console

The Claude Console is Anthropic’s platform for developers who want to use Claude programmatically. It provides tools to manage API keys, workspaces, access, usage, and billing.

• Create and manage keys for Claude API access.
• Organize projects, teams, and environments.
• Manage permissions, spending, and rate limits.
• Manage API and Workbench usage through prepaid credits.

How Claude Console is Organized

Every Console account belongs to an organization. An organization acts as the top-level container for members, billing and workspaces.

• A single email address can create one organization.
• Users can still be invited to other organizations and switch between them.
• Separate organizations have independent members, billing and workspaces.
• Workspaces divide API usage and access within an organization.
• API keys, files, batches and skills belong to exactly one workspace.

Getting First API Key

An API key allows applications and SDKs to authenticate requests to the Claude API.

Creating an API Key

1. Go to platform.claude.com and sign in, or create an account.
2. Add a payment method or purchase usage credits from Settings > Billing.
3. Go to Settings > API keys and select Create key.
4. Give the key a name and optionally select a workspace and expiration.
5. Copy the key and store it securely.

The API key starts with sk-ant- and is displayed in full only once. If the key is lost, its secret value cannot be viewed again and a new key must be created.

Note : If the Create key button is disabled, the user may not have permission to create keys in that workspace. An organization administrator needs to provide the required access.

Using the API Key

The API key can be stored as an environment variable so that Claude client SDKs can use it automatically:

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-api03-..."

For direct HTTP requests, the key is passed through the x-api-key header.

Admin API Keys

An Admin API key is different from a standard API key. It is intended for organization-level administration.

• Admin API keys start with sk-ant-admin.
• They can be used for tasks such as creating workspaces, adding members and retrieving usage reports.
• They cannot be used to make Claude API requests.
• They cannot be used to recover the secret value of a lost standard API key.

What are Workspaces in Claude Console?

Workspaces organize API usage within an organization. They can be used to separate projects, environments or teams while keeping billing and administration centralized.

• Every organization has a Default Workspace.
• The Default Workspace cannot be renamed, archived or deleted.
• An organization can have up to 100 workspaces.
• Each workspace can have its own API keys, members and resource limits.
• An API key is scoped to exactly one workspace.
• Files, message batches and skills are also workspace-scoped.
• Only organization administrators can create workspaces.

Claude Code Workspace

When someone in an organization signs in to Claude Code with their Console account for the first time, Anthropic automatically creates a Claude Code workspace and adds the user to it.

• A per-user API key is automatically created during sign-in.
• Users cannot manually create keys in this workspace.
• The key stops working when its owner leaves the workspace or organization.
• It supports per-user monthly spending limits.
• Administrators can control how much of the organization's overall limits Claude Code traffic can consume.

Workspace Roles

Claude Console supports different roles within workspaces, allowing organizations to control what users can do without giving every member the same permissions.

Organization administrators and billing members automatically inherit their corresponding workspace roles across workspaces and cannot be removed from those roles while they hold the organization-level role.

Setting Workplace Limits

Workspace limits control how much a particular workspace can consume. These limits can be configured below the organization's limits but cannot exceed them.

Spend Limits: Control the maximum monthly spending for a workspace.

Rate Limits: Control usage such as:

• Requests per minute.
• Input tokens per minute.
• Output tokens per minute.
• Limits based on the model tier.

If no workspace-specific limits are configured, the workspace follows the organization's limits. The Default Workspace cannot have limits configured directly.

How Claude Console Billing Work?

Claude API and Workbench usage is generally billed through prepaid usage credits rather than a monthly invoice. Credits must be purchased before API usage, and the credits are automatically applied according to current pricing.

Failed requests are not charged; charges apply to successful calls and completed tasks.

• Buying Credits: Credits can be purchased from Settings > Billing > Buy credits. Purchased credits become available immediately after the transaction.
• Auto-Reload: Auto-reload can automatically add credits when the account reaches a configured minimum balance. You can configure the minimum balance and the amount to reload.
• Credit Expiration: Purchased credits expire one year after the purchase date. The expiration date cannot be extended, and expired credits appear under Invoice History.
• Updating Payment Information: An organization member with an Admin or Billing role can update the card associated with the account from the Billing page using the edit option next to the current payment method.

New accounts may also receive a small amount of free credits for testing. Enterprise customers can contact sales regarding extended evaluation periods or custom pricing options, including invoice billing.

Common Way to Structure Workspaces

Environmental Based Structure: Create separate workspaces for:

• Development
• Staging
• Production

Each environment can have appropriate rate limits and spending controls.

Team Based Structure: Create separate workspaces for teams such as:

• Engineering
• Data Science
• Support

This makes access control and cost tracking easier for individual teams.

Project Based Structure: Create a workspace for each product or project. This keeps API usage and costs associated with a specific project, making them easier to track later.