Users of Anthropic AI-chatbot Claude reported issues with Fable, flagship AI model. Users complained about receiving a “usage credits are required” error. They said Fable 5 vanished from Claude Code and selecting it would prompt the “usage credits are required” message.
Claude acknowledged the issue with Fable, which, according to its website, is “flagship Mythos-class AI model, designed for long-running, autonomous knowledge work and complex coding.”
“We are aware of an issue preventing users from selecting Claude Fable 5 Claude AI, Claude Code, and other surfaces, and are working to resolve this issue,” a message on the company's status page read.
At 2:48pm EDT, the status page contained another update which said that a fix has been applied, and services are expected to be back up for all soon.
“We have applied a fix to resolve the erroneous requirement for usage credits on Fable 5, and are monitoring to ensure no further issues,” the update read. “You may need to relaunch Claude.ai or Claude Code to restore access as expected.”
Hundreds of users also reported issues with Claude Fable 5 on Down Detector, a platform that tracks such outages based on users' reports. More than 400 users reported the issue at the peak of the outage on Friday afternoon.
{{/usCountry}}Hundreds of users also reported issues with Claude Fable 5 on Down Detector, a platform that tracks such outages based on users' reports. More than 400 users reported the issue at the peak of the outage on Friday afternoon.
{{/usCountry}}Down Detector showed that the outage started at 2:06pm EDT and peaked at around 2:21pm EDT before becoming normal by 2:51pm EDT. 38% reported problems with Claude Code, 33% with Claude Chat and 19% with the Claude app.
Claude Users Express Frustration
Hundreds of Claude users, especially coders, turned to social media to communicate their problem and check if others were experiencing the same. Despite the brief duration of the outage - around 40 minutes - a significant number of users seemed affected, based on social media posts made.
"Was coding with Claude Fable 5 and mid-conversation it hit me with "credits are required for this model." Checked my usage. Zero usage logged for Fable 5. Anthropic said Fable 5 is available until July 19th. today is July 17th. Still 2 days left," wrote one.
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“Fable 5 has been removed from Claude Code. All of a sudden it says usage credits are required. WTF IS HAPPENING,” said one frustrated user.
“LMAO Fable 5 was just removed from Claude subscriptions 2 days early. It's over,” added another.
According to a March 28 report from TechCrunch, an analysis of credit card transaction data of 28 million US consumers revealed that a significant number of Claude's around 30 million users are paid subscribers. Claude has not revealed details of its user base.