Pay for the Claude API with a bank transfer (ACH)

You cannot pay for Claude Pro or Max with a bank transfer. Anthropic accepts ACH only for self-serve Enterprise plans and for API accounts on monthly invoicing, which Anthropic applies to organizations on a paid usage contract (Anthropic help center, read October 3, 2026). For the pay-as-you-go Claude API, and Claude Code on an API key, there is a route without a contract or a card: Kunavo, an independent API gateway, sells Claude and GPT models from a prepaid balance, and its US-dollar Stripe checkout offers ACH bank debit. You link a US bank account, the balance is credited once the debit settles in 3–5 business days, and the minimum is $10 with no subscription. The balance pays for API tokens; it does not buy a Claude Pro or Max plan. ACH is offered at checkout, but no ACH top-up has settled on Kunavo's account yet, so the screens below are Stripe's documented flow rather than ones we have watched a buyer go through. Prices verified October 3, 2026.

Short answer: can you pay for Claude with a bank transfer?

Anthropic does take bank transfers, but only from two kinds of customer, and someone buying a personal plan is neither. Here is how each way of paying for Claude handles a US bank account:

• Claude Pro or Max on claude.ai: no. Anthropic's payment-methods article says it accepts credit and debit cards for all purchases, that ACH bank transfers are accepted only for self-serve Enterprise plans and API accounts on monthly invoicing, and that it does not take PayPal or Venmo (read October 3, 2026). An individual plan is not on that list.
• Claude Pro or Max in the iPhone or Android app: no. The App Store or Google Play bills an in-app subscription, and neither store lets you attach a US bank account: Apple's US payment methods stop at Apple balance, Apple Card, Apple Cash, Apple Pay, cards and PayPal, and Google Play's payment-methods page names wire transfers among the payment types it cannot be used with (both read October 3, 2026).
• The Claude API on Anthropic's Console: only under a contract. Self-serve API usage is paid with prepaid credits bought by card. ACH opens up only on monthly invoicing, which Anthropic applies to organizations on a paid usage contract.
• The Claude API through Kunavo: yes, by ACH bank debit. The checkout offers it to US buyers when the amount is in US dollars, and the balance pays per token for Claude, Claude Code on a key, and GPT models. The rest of this page is that route.

On the OpenAI side, the help center says prepaid cards cannot be used to buy API credits and that only standard credit or debit cards are supported. Enterprise customers are billed under their contract: OpenAI's billing-timing article says the Enterprise contract determines the payment terms, while individual and team customers pay through prepaid credits or automatic card charges (both read October 3, 2026). None of the OpenAI billing articles we read mentions ACH, so we make no claim either way about what an OpenAI Enterprise contract allows.

Who takes a US bank payment for Claude or GPT

All outside sources were read October 3, 2026. The practical difference between the two “yes” rows: on Anthropic's invoicing you use the API first and pay at the end of the month, but you need a usage contract to get there. Kunavo is prepaid: no contract, but the tokens become usable only after the debit settles. If you need to start today, pay the first top-up by card or Link, which is credited when the checkout completes rather than days later, and use ACH for the next one.

How paying by ACH works at Kunavo's checkout

Kunavo's checkout leaves Stripe's ACH verification settings at their defaults, so what follows is Stripe's documented Checkout behaviour, cited step by step.

1. Create a Kunavo account with an email address or a Google account. No card is asked for at sign-up.
2. Open Billing and pick a top-up, from $10. The amount is in US dollars, which is the only currency ACH works in.
3. On the Stripe checkout, check that the amount is shown in US dollars, then pick the US bank account option. Stripe's ACH docs list the customer location as the US and the presentment currency as USD only (read October 3, 2026).
4. Verify the account, option A: sign in to your bank. Stripe Checkout uses Financial Connections to verify the account instantly: you sign in to your bank in Stripe's window, a pop-up on desktop or a redirect on mobile (Stripe's ACH docs), and pick the account. Financial Connections can also save the account through Link for reuse at other Stripe businesses.
5. Option B: type the routing and account numbers. This is Stripe's fallback, and it is slower. Stripe sends microdeposits that take 1–2 business days to appear: either two small amounts under a statement descriptor that reads ACCTVERIFY, or one deposit with a 6-digit code in the descriptor. When the deposits are expected to arrive, Stripe emails you a link to confirm them. You get 3 attempts with the amounts or 10 with the code, and you have 10 days to verify before the payment fails. If you cannot find the code in the descriptor, Stripe's form has a “Send another deposit” button, which sends two new deposits of different amounts that post in 1–3 business days. Manual entry confirms that the account can be debited but, per Stripe, gives no data access to Stripe or the merchant. The debit itself starts only after verification is complete.
6. Accept the mandate. An ACH debit needs your authorization. Checkout shows the mandate text, records your acceptance and, by default, emails a confirmation of it to the address you gave (Stripe).
7. Back on Billing, the order shows “Processing”. The next section is what happens from there.

After you pay: Processing, then credited

ACH is a delayed-notification method: Stripe says it can take up to 4 business days to learn whether a debit succeeded or failed (Stripe's ACH docs, read October 3, 2026). While it settles, the Billing page shows this note next to the order:

Bank debit in progress — bank transfers usually settle in 3–5 business days. Your balance is credited automatically; please don't pay again.

Do not pay a second time while an order says “Processing”: each order is credited once, when its own debit settles, so a second top-up becomes extra balance rather than a fix. If an order is still processing well past that window, write to support@kunavo.com with its date and amount.

Limits that come with ACH

• US bank accounts, US-dollar checkout. Stripe offers ACH to customers in the US and in USD only. We have not checked whether it appears for a buyer outside the US who has a US bank account and switches the checkout to dollars.
• No conversion fee. Because ACH is charged in US dollars, Stripe's Adaptive Pricing fee of 2–4%, which applies to checkouts shown in a local currency, does not apply (read October 3, 2026).
• Same minimum and bonuses as a card. The minimum top-up is $10, and larger top-ups carry the same bonus whatever the method: pay $100, get $110; pay $1,000, get $1,200; pay $5,000, get $6,250.
• No auto-recharge. Auto-recharge charges only a saved card or Link, so every ACH top-up is made by hand.
• Prepaid, with no invoices. Kunavo issues no invoices, VAT invoices or payment terms. The Billing page lists each top-up with its date, amount and status.
• What the balance covers. API tokens for Claude and GPT models, and Claude Code on an API key. It never expires, there is no monthly fee, and failed requests are not billed. It does not pay for Claude Pro or Max, ChatGPT Plus, Anthropic's Console or OpenAI's own credits.

If ACH is missing or the debit fails

ACH is not on the checkout. It can appear only when the checkout is in US dollars, and Stripe lists US customers only. If the page opens in another currency, Stripe's Adaptive Pricing has chosen a local currency for you from your location; if you are in the US on a VPN or proxy, turn it off and reopen the checkout from Billing. A US buyer can also pay by card, Link, Cash App Pay, or Apple Pay and Google Pay where the browser supports them; every other method, country by country, is in paying for the Claude API without a credit card.

The debit fails. Stripe names insufficient funds, an invalid account number and a bank account with debits disabled as the usual causes (Stripe, read October 3, 2026). A failure before settlement, including microdeposits left unconfirmed for 10 days, marks the order “Failed” and credits nothing. Fix the cause with your bank and start a new top-up.

The bank returns the debit after it was credited. Stripe records a late failure or a return as a dispute. A personal account can generally dispute an ACH debit through its bank for up to 60 calendar days, a business account for up to two business days (in rare cases a bank accepts one later), and those disputes are final, with no appeal. When one lands, Kunavo reverses the full credited amount, top-up and bonus, which can take the balance below zero. A dispute also invalidates the debit authorization, and if the same account disputes a later payment, Stripe blocks that bank account from further use (Stripe's ACH docs). If something is wrong with a top-up, write to us before you go to your bank.

Refunds on an ACH top-up

Kunavo refunds case by case through support@kunavo.com, for example after an outage on Kunavo's side, a pricing bug or an accidental double top-up. Refunds go to wallet credit by default, and back to your bank through Stripe on request (billing docs). The terms add that a top-up is non-refundable once it has been used, and that closing the account refunds the remaining balance to the original payment method, less processor fees.

ACH puts its own limits on a refund to your bank. Stripe can refund an ACH payment only in full, not in part, and only within 180 days. The refund takes up to 3 business days and arrives as a separate credit referencing the original payment's statement descriptor, not labelled as a refund (Stripe, read October 3, 2026). Stripe also warns that if a refund is issued while your bank processes a dispute for the same debit, you can be credited twice, so ask for one or the other. For a top-up you have partly used, write to support: wallet credit is the default.

For comparison, Anthropic says Console credits are non-refundable and expire one year after purchase, and OpenAI says its prepaid credits expire after one year and that credits equal to a disputed or refunded payment are removed from the account (both read October 3, 2026). A Kunavo balance does not expire.

What is not offered

ACH at Kunavo is a debit Stripe pulls from your account once you have authorized it. There is no option to push money by wire transfer to an account number, and Zelle, PayPal, Venmo and SEPA Direct Debit cannot be picked either. In the United Kingdom, the bank options are Bacs Direct Debit and Pay by Bank on a checkout in pounds; Bacs also credits only after it settles, in several business days. US buyers who would rather not use a bank account can pay with crypto (stablecoins) on the same US-dollar checkout.

The first call once the balance lands

Create a key under API keys. It starts with sk-kn- and is shown once, so copy it before closing the dialog. Claude Sonnet 5 costs $1.40 per 1M input tokens and $7.00 per 1M output tokens (Anthropic charges $2.00 and $10.00), Claude Haiku 4.5 costs $0.70 and $3.50, and GPT-5.6 Terra costs $0.70 and $4.20, all drawn from the same balance:

# After the ACH top-up is credited: one Claude call, one GPT call, same key.
curl https://api.kunavo.com/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $KUNAVO_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "claude-sonnet-5",
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "One line: did the bank debit land?"}]
  }'

curl https://api.kunavo.com/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $KUNAVO_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "gpt-5-6-terra",
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Same question, from the GPT side."}]
  }'

Claude Code runs on the same key. Pin the model so it does not follow whatever Claude Code defaults to:

# Claude Code on the same key and the same balance
export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=https://api.kunavo.com   # the origin, no /v1
export ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN=sk-kn-...
export ANTHROPIC_MODEL=claude-sonnet-5
claude

Full setup is in the Claude Code docs and the quickstart; every model's rate is in Claude API pricing.

FAQ

Other ways to pay

Every method Kunavo's checkout offers, by country, is in paying for the Claude API without a credit card. Pages for single methods: UPI in pay for Claude with UPI and the OpenAI API with UPI, stablecoins in paying for an AI API with crypto, Pix in Pagar a API com Pix (Portuguese), iDEAL in Claude betalen met iDEAL (Dutch), BLIK in Jak zapłacić za Claude BLIKIEM (Polish) and Satispay in pagare Claude con Satispay (Italian). How the balance and its ledger work is in the billing docs.