Anthropic Faces $16.6M Phantom Billing Issue; Charge Attempts Declined
Key Takeaways
- ▸Phantom invoices totaling $16.6M were generated for a free-tier user with zero reported API usage
- ▸Invoices grew tenfold in 24 hours, raising questions about Anthropic's billing system safeguards
- ▸All charge attempts were declined by the user's bank; no money was transferred
Summary
Anthropic's billing system generated phantom invoices totaling $16.6 million for a Korean Claude user who reported being on the free plan with zero API usage. The invoices, processed through Stripe, escalated rapidly—growing tenfold from approximately $1.67 million on July 7 to $16.6 million on July 8. Despite the large invoiced amounts, charge attempts were made to the user's bank card through Stripe but were declined due to transaction limits; no money was successfully transferred. Anthropic declined to comment on specifics, citing its policy against discussing individual accounts, and has not clarified whether the invoices resulted from a billing error or explained how charges reached a card the user claims was not registered with the service.
- Anthropic has not confirmed whether this was a billing error or explained the source of the charges
