Fix Claude SSO Login Creating Duplicate Accounts

A common point of confusion when logging into Claude is the distinction between signing in with a standard email address (via magic links) versus using Single Sign-On (SSO) like "Continue with Google" or "Continue with Apple."

If you subscribed to Claude Pro using one method but later click a different login button, Claude may treat this as an entirely new registration. You will find yourself logged into a brand-new, free tier account with no chat history and a prompt asking you to upgrade to Pro, despite your credit card being billed. Here is how to fix this duplicate account issue and recover your active subscription.

1. Locate Your Original Payment Receipt Before trying to log back in, verify the exact email address linked to your paid Claude Pro account.

1. Search your email inboxes for receipts from Anthropic or Stripe.
2. Look closely at the "To:" field of the receipt.
3. Note whether it was sent to your primary Google address, a secondary alias (e.g., name+claude@gmail.com), or a masked email address (such as Apple's "Hide My Email" alias, which looks like @privaterelay.appleid.com).

2. Completely Sign Out of the New Duplicate Account To log into the correct account, you must first clear the active session of the empty duplicate account.

1. Click on your profile icon or initials in the bottom-left corner of the Claude screen.
2. Click Log out.
3. Close the browser tab.

3. Clear Cached SSO Credentials Sometimes, clicking "Log out" is not enough because your browser has cached your Google or Apple SSO session, and clicking login will automatically sign you back into the wrong account without letting you choose.

• Clear site cookies: In Chrome, click the tune icon next to claude.ai in the address bar, select Cookies and site data, and click Manage third-party cookies and site data. Delete all files related to claude.ai.
• Alternatively, open an Incognito / Private window where no automatic SSO sessions are active.

4. Log In Using the Correct Method Now that your browser has a clean state, log in using the exact credential pairing that matches your billing receipt:

• If your receipt is on a standard Gmail/Apple email: Try typing your email address into the text box and clicking Continue with email instead of clicking the Google/Apple SSO buttons. This triggers a "magic link" sent directly to your inbox, bypassing SSO configuration entirely.
• If your receipt is on a custom business email: Do not use Google SSO unless your workspace is specifically federated with Anthropic. Use the password/magic link option.
• If you subscribed via an Apple device: If you used Apple's "Hide My Email" feature, you must choose Continue with Apple and ensure you select the same Apple ID. The receipt will have been sent to a randomized private relay email address, which is the email address you must look for.

5. Safely Delete the Empty Duplicate Account Once you have successfully logged into your paid account and confirmed your history is intact, you may want to delete the duplicate empty account to avoid future login confusion.

1. Log into the empty/free account.
2. Go to your profile icon in the bottom-left corner and click Settings.
3. Locate the Account section.
4. Scroll to the bottom and click Delete Account.
5. Confirm the deletion. *Warning: Double-check that you are currently logged into the unpaid, empty account before clicking confirm.*

When to Escalate If you have checked all your email addresses and still cannot locate the active Pro account, or if you accidentally deleted your paid account while trying to clean up duplicates, you will need Anthropic's billing support to intervene.

Contact support through the help widget. Provide them with the billing email address, the last 4 digits of the card charged, the date of your last payment, and the Stripe transaction ID (which starts with ch_ or pi_ on your bank statement). They can locate the orphaned account and update the login email for you.