claude-code - 💡(How to fix) Fix [BUG] €450 consumed in under 24 hours - €50 exhausted creating 4-5 markdown files in a clean empty workspace (2.1.139)

Preflight Checklist

• I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

In under 24 hours (May 10-12, 2026), €450 were consumed across three charges:

Weekly quota on Max plan (€200/month equivalent) - exhausted in less than one day. €200 extra usage purchased after quota ran out - exhausted within approximately 2 hours. €50 extra usage purchased after that - nearly entirely consumed (~€44) in a brand new, empty workspace by a session that only created 4-5 short markdown files. The third charge is the clearest evidence of a bug: a clean workspace, no agents, no background tasks, no large files - just a planning conversation resulting in 4-5 small markdown files - consumed nearly €50.

I have been using Claude Code for months on far larger projects (hundreds of documents, agents, complex workflows, full websites) without this level of consumption.

What Should Happen?

Creating 4-5 markdown files in a short session should cost a few euros at most. Prior usage on significantly larger workloads was proportionally priced.

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

Steps to Reproduce

Open Claude Code in VS Code, claude-opus-4-7 (1M context), Max plan Open a brand new empty workspace with no prior history Have a short planning conversation resulting in creating 4-5 small markdown files Observe ~€44 consumed Session ID: c6867737-ed37-4b5f-b5b4-d45bf59665b5 Dates: May 11-12, 2026 Version: 2.1.139

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

No response

Claude Code Version

2.1.139

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

VS Code integrated terminal

Additional Information

Platform: macOS (darwin), VS Code extension Model: claude-opus-4-7, 1M context Plan: Max + Extra Usage

Related issues:

#42272 - 66% quota in 2 questions (regression since 2.1.88) #17740 - 68% quota in one conversation (regression Dec 30, 2025) #13569 - Token consumption spiked after 2.0.64 #11716 - Background processes cause infinite token exhaustion