--max-budget-usd
A Claude Code CLI flag, read out of the shipped bundle. No mined inventory carries it: everything below comes from what this site has written about it.
Maximum dollar amount to spend on API calls before stopping (print mode only). Spend from subagents counts toward the cap. When you return to a conversation with --continue or --resume, totals restored from earlier runs don't count toward it. Once spend reaches the cap, spawning another subagent fails with Budget limit reached, and Claude Code stops background subagents that are still running; the cap-enforcement behaviors require Claude Code v2.1.217 or later
Anthropic's own wording. Read off CLI reference, captured 2026-09-26.
In the changelogs
6Releases whose published page names --max-budget-usd.
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v2.1.299
Headless runs now say why they stopped, including when input ends
Headless runs now end with a stated reason: the turn limit, the spending limit, or the host closing its input
found in this entry's text
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v2.1.295
Non-interactive runs set up a new tracker for turn and spending limits
When Claude Code runs without its interactive screen, it now builds a new tracker from the maximum-turns and maximum-budget limits
found in this entry's text
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v2.1.277
print --max-budget-usd halt message rewording
Internal log wording for the --max-budget-usd halt now says 'this run's spend' instead of 'total cost'
found in this entry's text
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v2.1.277
CLI budget/task-budget argument errors now thrown as a different error class
Errors for invalid --max-budget-usd or --task-budget values now use a different internal error class, same message
found in this entry's text
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v2.1.246
Headless runs halt at the spend cap and stop background agents
Headless runs now stop at your spend cap and shut down background agents instead of spending on.
named in this entry, found in this entry's text
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v2.1.242
New
modelPricingmanaged setting bills usage at contracted ratesOrganizations can bill your reported spend at contracted rates everywhere costs appear.
found in this entry's text
First cited
1The earliest release whose published evidence quoted --max-budget-usd was v2.1.277, 18 Sep 2026. That is the oldest release this project wrote about it, so it is a floor on the name's age and not the release that introduced it. It is not a presence reading: which builds carried the name is the table below.
Presence across releases
0The miner has never read a build containing this name. It is here because a changelog entry of ours names it, which is evidence that it existed and not evidence of which releases carried it. The inventory starts at v2.1.138 and everything older than that was never mined.
Read out of the published npm bundle release by release, and out of Anthropic's own documentation as this site captured it. Nothing on this page is a description anybody here wrote about what the CLI flag does. All CLI flags.