Key Notes
- Anthropic moved Claude Code cloud sessions out of research preview to general availability, letting developers run coding tasks on Anthropic managed infrastructure that keeps working after a laptop closes or disconnects, launchable from the browser, mobile app, desktop app, or terminal.
- Existing Pro and Max subscribers can claim a one-time credit of 100 dollars or 250 dollars respectively through October 7, applied automatically to cloud sessions and kept separate from normal plan usage limits.
- Each session runs in an isolated virtual machine with a connected GitHub repository, competing more directly with background coding agents from OpenAI, GitHub, Cognition, and Google.
Anthropic has moved Claude Code cloud sessions out of research preview and into general availability, letting developers run coding tasks on Anthropic managed infrastructure that keeps working after they close their laptop or lose their connection.
Alongside the change, Anthropic is offering existing Pro and Max subscribers a one time credit to test the feature, separate from their normal plan usage limits.
Cloud sessions are officially available and out of research preview! They let you keep Claude Code working, even when your laptop is closed.
Existing subscribers get a one-time credit to try them: $100 on Pro, $250 on Max. pic.twitter.com/SvdB2ATkFw
— ClaudeDevs (@ClaudeDevs) September 23, 2026
Coding That Survives a Closed Laptop
According to Anthropic’s own documentation, a cloud session runs Claude Code on cloud infrastructure instead of a developer’s own machine. By default those sessions run on infrastructure Anthropic manages, though organizations with self hosted environments can route sessions to their own infrastructure instead.
Sessions persist after the originating device disconnects, and developers can check on progress or send follow up instructions from another device once signed into the same account.
Developers can start a cloud session from four places: the browser at claude.ai/code, the Code tab in the Claude mobile app, the desktop app by selecting Cloud instead of Local, or from the terminal using the claude --cloud flag. A connected GitHub account is required, since each session checks out its own copy of a repository and works on a separate branch that developers can review before merging.
One Time Credits, With A Deadline
Existing subscribers can claim a one time cloud session credit through October 7 using the /claim-credit command in the Claude Code CLI, according to AlphaSignal, which first reported the promotion. Pro subscribers receive 100 dollars in credit and Max subscribers receive 250 dollars, applied automatically once a cloud session starts and kept separate from each plan’s normal usage allowance.
Once the credit is exhausted, cloud session usage counts against a developer’s regular plan limits going forward.
Built for Longer, Unattended Work
The move addresses a practical limitation of Claude Code’s earlier design, in which background and interactive work drew from the same usage allowance. Anthropic’s documentation describes cloud sessions as suited to longer running jobs such as refactors, dependency upgrades, and repeated test and fix loops that previously required keeping a development machine open and connected for the duration of the task.
Sessions can also be triggered through scheduled routines, HTTP endpoints, or GitHub events, supporting recurring maintenance work without a developer needing to manually start each run.
Each cloud session runs in an isolated virtual machine, according to Anthropic, with network access limited by default and git credentials kept outside the sandboxed environment, where a proxy authenticates on the session’s behalf using scoped credentials.
Organizations with source residency or network control requirements can instead run sessions through a self hosted option, currently in public beta, using infrastructure partners such as Coder to keep repository checkouts, secrets, and modified files inside their own environment.
A Crowded Field for Background Coding Agents
Claude Code’s move to general availability places it more directly against tools such as OpenAI’s Codex, GitHub’s Copilot Workspace, Cognition’s Devin, and Google’s Jules, all of which offer some version of the same asynchronous pattern: assign a coding task, let an agent work on it in the background, and review the resulting branch or pull request once it is done.
Anthropic’s promotional credit lowers the near term cost of testing longer cloud runs for developers who are already paying subscribers, though the company has not said whether it plans to offer similar credits on an ongoing basis once the current promotion ends.
Anthropic did not disclose usage figures for cloud sessions during their preview period, and it remains unclear how heavily the feature has been used relative to Claude Code’s terminal based workflow, which the company has previously said drives a substantial share of its overall revenue.
The general availability launch follows Anthropic’s recent move to merge Claude Cowork into its main chat product, part of a broader pattern of the company consolidating separate agentic tools into fewer, more capable surfaces.
Teams evaluating the feature before wiring it into continuous integration workflows are advised, per Anthropic’s own documentation, to start with a noncritical repository and a task with clear acceptance criteria, such as a dependency upgrade or a single test fix loop, then review the generated branch, logs, and permissions before expanding use.
Cloud sessions share the same rate limits as other Claude and Claude Code usage on an account, and Anthropic said there is no separate compute charge for the underlying virtual machine beyond that shared allowance.
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