Keep a work Team seat and a personal Claude plan apart

Keep them in separate Claude Code configuration folders: your personal plan in the default ~/.claude, your work Team seat in something like ~/.claude-work, each signed in once. On claude.ai the rule depends on the email: if both accounts share one email you switch from your initials; if they use different emails you log out and back in.

This is a documented setup. Anthropic's Claude Code documentation says: "To stay signed in to multiple accounts at once, such as work and personal accounts, give each account its own configuration directory" (authentication).

Claude Code: one folder per account

Set an alias for the work account, the example Anthropic gives:

alias claude-work='CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR=~/.claude-work claude'

Start it, sign in with the work email, and keep using a plain claude for your personal plan. Each folder has its own settings, session history and login, so the two do not mix. The full setup is in How to use several Claude Code accounts on one Mac.

Claude Code is included with a Team seat: "Claude Code is included with every Team plan seat. Premium seats offer more usage for team members with heavier workloads" (Claude Code with Team and Enterprise). For the difference between seat types, see Claude Team Standard vs Premium seat.

On claude.ai: the account switcher

Anthropic's login help says that if an individual account and a Team or Enterprise account share one email, you switch between them from your initials in the bottom left. If the accounts use different emails, you have to log out and back in (log in to your Claude account).

When Claude Code opens the browser to sign in, the browser's current claude.ai session is what you will see. If it is signed in as the wrong account, switch accounts on that page before you approve, or the folder ends up holding the wrong account.

The "wrong login method" error

If Claude Code tells you that Pro, Max or Ultra is required but you have a Team or Enterprise seat, Anthropic says "you selected the wrong login method". The fix on that page: run /login again and pick the account tied to your work email (Claude Code FAQ).

With two folders, the first thing to check is which account the work folder is actually signed in to:

/status

The Status tab shows version, model, account and connectivity (commands). If the account is wrong, run /login inside that folder only. If you are not sure which folder you are in, quit and start it again with the alias.

Admin login restrictions

Your organisation may limit which accounts can sign in. Anthropic's documentation says admins can restrict logins with forceLoginMethod and forceLoginOrgUUID in managed settings (authentication). With forceLoginOrgUUID set, Claude Code "reports an error for a claude.ai login to any other organization", so a personal login on a managed machine may be refused. That is a policy decision by your employer, not a bug. Ask your IT or admin team what is allowed on that machine.

What stays separate, and what does not

Limits stay separate between accounts. Team usage limits are per member: one member reaching a limit does not affect others, and "Usage limits can't be transferred or shared between team members. Each seat is for one named individual" (Team plan). Your personal plan has its own limits.

Limits are shared within an account. Usage across claude.ai, Claude Code and Claude Desktop counts toward the same limit (usage and length limits). A long chat on your work account uses the same allowance as Claude Code on that account.

Claude Desktop follows the app's account. Its Code tab uses the account signed in to the app, not your terminal folder (Run two Claude Code accounts at the same time covers Desktop and IDEs).

An API key overrides the subscription. If ANTHROPIC_API_KEY is set in your shell profile, Anthropic says Claude Code will use it "instead of your Claude subscription", which means API charges (Claude Code with Pro, Max or Ultra). A key in your shell profile applies to the work folder and the personal one alike. See Claude Code API key overrides subscription.

Whose account, whose work

A few points in Anthropic's own words:

• The Consumer Terms say "You may not share your Account login information, Anthropic API key, or Account credentials with anyone else. You also may not make your Account available to anyone else" (Consumer Terms).
• On a Team seat, the Team plan page quoted above says "Each seat is for one named individual".
• Anthropic describes subscription usage as "designed to support ordinary use of native Anthropic applications" (log in to your Claude account).
• Your employer may have its own rules about work code on a personal plan and the reverse. Check them. This post cannot tell you what your employer allows.

For the wider terms question, see Is it allowed to have more than one Claude account?.

A quick routine

1. Pick a folder name for each account and write the aliases once.
2. Sign in once in each folder.
3. Run /status when you open a session, until the alias is muscle memory.
4. Do not run /logout to change accounts; it removes all stored credentials, as Switch Claude Code accounts without logging out explains.

Watching both at once

Headroom is a free Mac menu bar app, independent of Anthropic and not made, endorsed or supported by it. It lists each Claude Code account signed in on your Mac, shows the plan on each row when you open it, and gives session and weekly use for both, so you can see where your work seat stands without opening a session. It reads the sign-in Claude Code already saved on your Mac. Get it from the Headroom home page.