Claude Account Suspended or Asking for ID: How to Appeal

In short: the route depends on the account. A personal account (Free, Pro, Max, Ultra) appeals at claude.ai/restricted, logged in as the suspended account. API keys and the Console have platform.claude.com/appeal. If Claude suspended you over your age, the email carries a link to an age check; if it asks for ID, that is a separate verification with its own help form. All addresses checked on 3 November 2026. If you are physically in a country that is not on Anthropic's list, an appeal cannot change the rule: the section "When an appeal cannot help" says so plainly.

A personal account: Free, Pro, Max, Ultra

1. 1Open claude.ai and log in as the suspended account. The form is not available without logging in: Anthropic's article says so outright.
2. 2The restricted screen opens. If it does not, go to claude.ai/restricted.
3. 3Press "Submit an appeal" and fill in the form. Take the text from the template below.
4. 4Send one appeal and wait. Anthropic names no response time.

If the screen will not open. Users reported (May to September 2026) that claude.ai/restricted sent them back to the start page. The official fallback is the "Account Ban Appeal" form with three fields: name, the email of the account, a message. Its link sits inside Anthropic's identity verification article (article 14328960). Use only the link from there: forms with the same text circulate on forums and GitHub, and where they come from is unknown. The same restricted screen also has buttons to export your data and delete the account.

Claude Code, the API and team accounts

• Claude Code with a subscription (Pro, Max). Under Anthropic's terms these users count as personal accounts, so the route is the same. That is our reading of the terms (code.claude.com), not Anthropic's words.
• API key and Console. Log in to the Console and open platform.claude.com/appeal: the page is called "Request a review", and console.anthropic.com/appeal redirects to it. We checked that the page loads; we did not check how it behaves after login.
• The error "This organization has been disabled" (API Error 400). Users report that it usually means a ban. Which route to take depends on how you log in: with a subscription, as a personal account; with an API key, the Console.
• An organization on hold while your account is fine. The restricted screen lists each organization, with a "Request a review" button on it.
• A Team or Enterprise member. You only reach the support bot; a human is reached through your owner or admin, so ask them to write. The error "Your organization has disabled Claude subscription access" is sometimes just an admin setting, not a ban: ask your admin first.

A warning, login trouble and the support chat

• A warning without a ban. You can dispute it by emailing usersafety@anthropic.com with the details of your situation and your account information. For the API, warnings are counted across the whole API account.
• You cannot log in. Open support.claude.com, press the message icon at the lower right, start a conversation and choose "I can't login". It covers data export, deletion and subscription help. Anthropic does not describe it as an appeal channel.
• The support chat. Log in, press your name at the lower left, then "Get help", "Send us a message", "Accept" and pick the topic. In the Console it is the same at platform.claude.com. There is no phone and no live chat.
• Who reaches a human. Pro, Max, Ultra, Team and Enterprise owners and Console admins: the bot, then specialists. Free accounts: the bot only. One issue, one conversation: Anthropic says a second request usually slows the answer. For users in the EU, the Help Center chat is Anthropic's single point of contact under the DSA (article 11595103).

Why accounts get suspended, in Anthropic's own rules

• Three reasons in Anthropic's article: repeated Usage Policy violations, creating an account from an unsupported location, and violating the Terms of Service.
• Age. Claude is for 18 and over (or the age of majority where you live, if higher). When signals suggest a minor, Anthropic disables the account. Age-related suspensions are the most searched case in English.
• Third-party tools and sharing an account. A subscription login is meant for Claude Code and Anthropic's own apps. Tools that misrepresent their identity or route other people's traffic through subscription limits are prohibited (article 13189465). You may not make your account available to anyone else.
• Payment and VPNs. We found no official rule tied to the country of your card; the Terms ask only for accurate billing details. None of the official pages we read names VPNs: the rule is about where you are physically (see below). Users describe suspensions right after paying, but those reports name no cause.
• What the emails say. User reports repeat one line: an internal investigation of suspicious signals indicates a Usage Policy violation. The email usually gives no further reason. These are user reports, not an Anthropic statement. The wave of bans of users in Russia and Hong Kong from early October 2026 was covered by Kommersant and kod.ru (2 October 2026); we found no public Anthropic statement about VPNs in those days.

What to write in the appeal

• The account email, the plan (Free, Pro, Max, Ultra, Team, Enterprise, API), the organization ID or the TS-... reference from the email, if there is one.
• The date, the time and the exact text of the message or error.
• The country where you really live and use Claude. If it is a supported country, say so and offer to complete identity verification.
• How you use Claude: work, study, coding, two or three plain sentences.
• Anything that may have looked unusual, stated honestly: travel, a shared office or university network, a privacy VPN used in a supported country, a third-party tool you connected and have removed.
• One clear ask: "Please review my account."

The template. Anthropic has not said which language to write in; English is the safe default, and that is our recommendation. Replace everything in square brackets and delete any line that is not true for you. Write only what is true.

Subject: Account review request

Hello,

I am asking for a review of my Claude account.

Account email: [the email I signed up with]
Plan: [Free / Pro / Max / Ultra / Team / API]
Reference from the email: [TS-... or organization ID, if any]
Date and time I lost access: [date, time zone]
Message I saw: "[copy the exact text]"

Where I live and use Claude: [my real country]
How I use Claude:
[work / study / coding, two or three plain sentences]
What may have looked unusual:
[travel, a shared office or university network,
a privacy VPN used in a supported country,
a third-party tool I connected and have removed]

I have not created other accounts and I have not shared this one.
Everything above is true. If you need me to complete
verification, I will.

Please review my account.
Thank you,
[my name]

A shorter version for the message field of a form. Short and plain is easier to review: keep it that way, whatever you add.

Hello,

Please review my Claude account ([account email], plan: [plan]).
I lost access on [date]. The message said: "[exact text]".
I live in [my real country] and use Claude for [work / study / coding].
[One honest line about anything unusual, or delete this line.]
I have not created other accounts. If verification is needed, I will
complete it.

Thank you,
[my name]

Anthropic publishes no official template. The only official structure is the "Account Ban Appeal" form: name, account email, message. Send one appeal, then reply in the same thread. Do not post your emails or the form on forums.

How long it takes, and the odds

• Anthropic names no response time. Its pages only say that response times are longer than normal.
• Users report waits from a few hours to several weeks, and some report no reply for months (ichip.ru, 16 October 2026; Hacker News, 7 March 2026). These are reports, not a promise.
• Anthropic's own report for January to June 2026 (Transparency Hub, updated 23 July 2026): 11.4 million banned accounts, 398 thousand appeals, 42 thousand overturned. Our arithmetic: about one appeal in ten was overturned, and only about 3.5% of banned accounts appealed.
• The report does not split cases by reason, so it says nothing about yours. Users also report replies saying "final decision"; after those, by the same reports, a repeat appeal changes nothing.

Identity verification: Persona, a document, a selfie

• Who is asked. Anthropic is rolling out identity verification for a few cases: when you access certain capabilities, in routine platform integrity checks and in other safety measures (article 14328960). TechCrunch reported on 22 June 2026 that it applies to a small subset of users flagged for possible fraud but not banned, as part of the appeals process.
• Who runs it and what you need. Persona runs the check. You need a real government-issued photo ID in your hand and a phone with a camera. You may be asked for a live selfie.
• What is accepted. The original passport, driver's licence or national ID card from most countries: legible, undamaged, unexpired, with your photo. Anthropic publishes no country list.
• What is not accepted. Photocopies, screenshots, scans and photos of a photo; digital or mobile IDs; student IDs, employee badges, library or bank cards; temporary paper IDs.
• Your data. Persona holds the ID image and the selfie, not Anthropic; Anthropic can reach the records through Persona, for example to review an appeal. No retention period is stated. Anthropic says it does not use identity data to train its models. The Privacy Policy of 10 September 2026 calls it "Verification Data", including facial geometry templates that may count as biometric data in some places.

1. 1Start verification only from the prompt inside Claude or from the Help Center at support.claude.com. Do not open links from emails or messages from other senders: we did not check which address a Persona link comes from.
2. 2Anthropic lists the causes of a failure: a blurry photo, an unreadable or expired document, a wrong registration number (for organizations), a technical issue. Fix the cause and try again.
3. 3After several failed attempts inside the flow (Anthropic does not say how many), fill in the help form claude.com/form/identity-verification-help.
4. 4If you are banned after verifying and think it is wrong, appeal through the "Account Ban Appeal" form from article 14328960.

The age check: Yoti

• Claude is for 18 and over. When signals suggest a minor, Anthropic disables the account and emails a link to Yoti (article 15171100).
• Yoti offers a selfie age estimate, a photo of an ID or a Yoti Digital ID. If you pass, the account is reinstated. Yoti deletes the images after the check, and Anthropic receives only pass or fail.
• On mobile in some US states the app store's age signal is used. Anthropic cannot change it: you have to contact Apple or Google (article 13117299).

1. 1Open the link in Anthropic's email about the disabled account. Do not use links from any other source.
2. 2Choose a method and complete the check.
3. 3If it fails and you are over 18, try the general appeal route from the table above: Anthropic's article describes no separate route for this case.

Money and data

• Where to ask for a refund. Bought on the web: your initials at the lower left, "Get help", "Send us a message", "Accept", "Claude Refund Request". Bought on iOS: only through Apple (reportaproblem.apple.com). Google Play: contact support, as the refund article describes.
• EEA and UK. A refund is possible within 14 days of purchase, prorated.
• If Anthropic terminated the account for a Terms violation, the Terms (section 12) give no refund. If a website subscription ended for another reason, the refund is pro rata. The refund article does not mention banned accounts, and in practice, by reports, the answers differ.
• A bank dispute (chargeback). While one is open, a refund cannot be processed. While your appeal is open, do not start one.
• You cannot log in. Write to support from another email address and copy the account email.
• Exporting your data. "Settings", "Privacy", "Export data": a link arrives by email and expires after 24 hours. It is not available in the iOS and Android apps, only on the web or in Desktop. Every banned user can export from the restricted screen, but what you can export may be limited by the violation (article 9450526).
• Deleting is permanent: export first (article 9028421). Any banned user can delete their own account. An export cannot be imported into another personal account.

When an appeal cannot help

• You are physically in a country outside the list. Anthropic's Supported Regions Policy excludes use from such places, and a phone number from a supported place is required at sign-up (article 8287232). Russia, Belarus, China, Hong Kong and Iran are not listed (as of 3 November 2026); Kazakhstan, Vietnam and Türkiye are. For Ukraine the list excludes Crimea, Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions, in Anthropic's wording. The policy page is marked "Effective Nov 12, 2026" (12.11.2026): after that date, check these lines against the original.
• The organization is incorporated in or controlled from an unsupported region. The policy covers companies wherever their staff are.
• The decision is already marked final. Users report the reply "This is our final decision".
• A refund after termination for a Terms violation (section 12 of the Terms), apart from the 14 days in the EEA and UK and the app stores' rules.

What not to do

• Do not create a new account after a ban. The Usage Policy calls circumventing a ban with another account abuse: a new one, an existing one, or access given to a person who was banned.
• Do not buy accounts. The Terms forbid making your account available to others and require accurate account details.
• Do not use someone else's ID or phone: the verification and the phone number must be yours.
• Do not state a false country or age, and invent nothing in the appeal.
• Do not send duplicate appeals: one appeal, then replies in the same thread.
• Do not follow links to an "appeal form" from forum or GitHub posts: use only links from support.claude.com.
• Do not open a bank dispute while the appeal is under review.

Sources, checked 3 November 2026

• Appeals, warnings and support: 8241253 (modified 30.10.2026), 9015913 (30.10.2026).
• Identity verification: 14328960 (11.08.2026) and the help form.
• Age: 15171100 (18.05.2026), 13117299 (16.03.2026).
• Money and data: 12386328, 9450526, 9028421 (30.10.2026).
• Regions and phone: anthropic.com/supported-countries ("Effective Nov 12, 2026"), 8287232 (17.08.2026).
• Rules: Usage Policy (new version of 12.11.2026, the 15.09.2025 version applies until then), Consumer Terms (08.10.2025), Privacy Policy (10.09.2026).
• Numbers: Transparency Hub (23.07.2026). User and press reports (Kommersant, 2 October 2026; The Register, 16 April 2026; TechCrunch, 22 June 2026) are given as reports, not as Anthropic data.
• Claude Code and subscriptions: 13189465 (30.10.2026).
• Anthropic's Help Center is also translated into several languages (we checked three main articles: 8241253, 14328960, 8287232). The links here lead to the English versions, as Anthropic lists them.

Frequently asked questions