Internal error: Usage credits are required for this model.: {
"errorKind": "rate_limit"
}
[Edit] Update from https://status.claude.com/
> We are aware of an issue preventing users from selecting Claude Fable 5 within Claude.ai, Claude Code, and other surfaces, and are working to resolve this issue. Jul 17, 2026 - 18:36 UTC
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48882730
I am assuming this is some kind of bug.
SIGH.
EDIT: My bad, they indeed said 19th.
1. https://support.claude.com/en/articles/15424964-claude-fable...
> The promotion starts July 1, 2026 and ends July 19, 2026 at 11:59:59 PM PT.
from: https://support.claude.com/en/articles/15424964-claude-fable...
Subscription accounts just get their "best effort" service during the subscription window.
Opus is struggling through the deploy operation that Fable may have been in the middle of, it's supposed to be idempotent, but I wonder how reliable that is... Fable had re-deployed a dozen times in the past 3-4 days, but Opus (lacking the context window) seems like it's hit a wall.
That’s a bug
> Update - We are aware of an issue preventing users from selecting Claude Fable 5 within Claude.ai, Claude Code, and other surfaces, and are working to resolve this issue.From the look of it, their ops team is having a really bad Friday.
I don't mind them changing the terms, I do mind them changing the terms without warning - I had concrete plans to wrap up my fable development long before the July 19th deadline, but, nope, here in the middle of the 7/17 afternoon it was working, then it cut me off.
Hopefully that's not the case though, I was retaining a buffer to hit it hard this weekend.
Specific and helpful so that's good.
Even 2 hours notice would have been nice, though.
My Max sub got renewed today, wish I've cancelled it earlier. I have been mainly using Sol anyways. I don't want to deal with dumb Opus anymore.
/model
⎿ Kept model as Fable 5
continue
Usage credits are required for this model.That is what my Claude Code instance says, too.
Usage credits weren't required before, and I was far from using up my Fable quota for the week under the promo...
I was selected into fable, my context window had restructured my database schema and was about to deploy and migrate the existing database, then "you need to purchase credits to use this model" appeared right in the middle of the session.
Fable was really a step ahead of Opus on this kind of work. I guess I will be looking at Codex unless Fable is included in my Max subscription on Claude code – or the next Opus is a clear improvement (and comes out soon).
Ah, just saw that it’s still available but requires credits now.
False alarm, remove tinfoil.