Get your Claude API key

API keys for the Claude API (also called Anthropic API keys) live in the Claude Console. To view your existing keys or create a new one, go to Settings → API keys.

Choose a key type

When you create a key, you choose its type, which determines what the key can do, where it works, and when it stops working. A personal key acts as you, and stops working if you leave an organization. A service account key represents a service account which can be used by workloads such as CI pipelines, production services, or agents. Use a personal key for your own development, and a service account key for anything shared.

You can also create a workspace key, a legacy key without an owner: it belongs to the workspace you create it in and keeps working after its creator leaves. It is preferable to use a personal or service account key, as these stop working automatically when their associated account is removed from the organization.

Create an API key

1. 1

   Sign in to the Claude Console

   Go to platform.claude.com and sign in, or create an account if you don't have one yet.

2. 2

   Open the API keys page

   Go to Settings → API keys.

3. 3

   Create a key

   Click Create key, name the key, choose an expiration, and set Linked account to yourself or a service account. You can also choose a workspace to scope the key to.

4. 4

   Copy and store the key

   The Console shows the full key, which starts with sk-ant-, only once, at creation. Copy it and store it somewhere safe, such as a secrets manager. If you lose a key, you can't view it again in the Console. Create a new key instead.

If the Create key button on the API keys page is disabled, your role may not allow you to create keys there. Ask an organization admin to change your role, or to create a service account key for your workload.

Use your API key

Set the key as an environment variable:

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-api03-..."

The client SDKs read ANTHROPIC_API_KEY automatically. Direct HTTP requests send the key in the x-api-key header. If your API key works on multiple workspaces, you must also send the anthropic-workspace-id header on each Claude API request, as shown in Select a workspace. For the Admin API, see API keys and the Admin API.

To make your first request, follow the Quickstart, and see Authentication for the full picture, including short-lived credentials with Workload Identity Federation.

API keys and the Admin API

The Admin API includes endpoints for managing your organization's API keys programmatically, such as Retrieve API Key and List API Keys. These endpoints are for organization admins automating key management. They accept an Admin API key, an OAuth token with the org:admin scope, or a personal or service account key that isn't scoped to a specific workspace; workspace keys don't work there. They never return a key's secret value, only a partially redacted hint.