Claude Is Not Accepting New Users: What to Do

The “Unfortunately, Claude is not available to new users right now” screen means Anthropic is not allowing you to create a new account. The screen does not explain why. Check 2 registration rules: your country and phone number, and any email address that has already had a Claude account.

But you can still vibe code without it. In one comparison, Qwen is rated roughly 10% below Opus.

Let's go through both rules, what to use if Claude will not let you in, and what to check before trying again. Let's get started.

You can find additional instructions in the Ailoot documentation.

How is this screen different from other Claude errors?#

Claude has 2 other similar errors, which I have covered separately:

• Claude Code does not work in your country. You have an account, but the application says your region is unavailable. What to do about it is explained here.
• You had an account, and suddenly you can no longer sign in. That is an account suspension. The reasons accounts get suspended are explained here.

If you are just signing up, check the 2 rules below.

If you are building your own projects with AI agents, you can find additional instructions in the Ailoot documentation.

Rule 1: country and phone number#

Anthropic's rule:

In other words: “Only users who are physically in one of the supported countries can create and use Claude accounts. Creating an account also requires a phone number from a supported country; you cannot skip this step.”

The list of countries is long, from Albania to Zimbabwe. The number must be able to receive SMS messages: Anthropic does not accept VoIP, Google Voice, app-based numbers or landlines. You can verify a maximum of 3 accounts with 1 number; after that, Claude will say the number has been used too many times.

I do not recommend services that receive SMS messages for you. Sooner or later you will need to receive another SMS message on that number, and the number may no longer work, may have been blocked, or the service itself may have shut down. You could lose access to your account. I wrote more about phone numbers in a separate article.

Rule 2: an email address that has already had an account#

If you deleted an account and try to create a new one with the same email address, Claude may respond like this:

In other words: “The email address you entered is linked to an existing account or to an account that was active within the last 30 days.”

If the previous account on that email address was disabled for violating the rules, you cannot create a new one with it, no matter how long you wait. That restriction concerns creating another account; it does not rule out an appeal of the existing suspension. If you believe the suspension was a mistake, sign in to claude.ai with the suspended account and use the appeal form described in Anthropic’s official guidance. The Safeguards team reviews appeals; restoration and response time are not guaranteed.

I covered which email addresses are suitable for registration here.

Which alternatives can I consider if Claude will not accept my registration?#

Claude Code is the smartest code-producing machine. I try everything and work with everything: ChatGPT, Qwen, Chinese models, GLM. Nothing is better. But if it will not let you in, there are alternatives.

ChatGPT Codex. If you cannot get anywhere with Claude, choose Codex: it is easier to get in, and there are fewer account suspensions.

GLM. My plan B: a Chinese alternative to Claude, close to Sonnet and 3–5 times cheaper. I covered how the new GLM-5.2 holds up against Opus here.

Qwen. Good enough, but slow. I use it too, mainly to check code for bugs and errors. Where to get a key is explained here.

DeepSeek. If Claude has suspended your account and you want something simpler, you can comfortably vibe code with DeepSeek. DeepSeek is a Chinese platform. But it will not make it through a task that takes several hours: I have tried, and it breaks down along the way.

You can enable several models at once in VS Code. When one runs out of usage allowance, switch it off and work with Qwen; when Qwen runs out, use Codex.

What to check before trying again#

1. Email address. If its account was recently deleted, wait 30 days. If the account was disabled for violating the rules, you can no longer create an account with that email address.
2. Phone number. If you are in a country on Anthropic's list, you need a number from that country that can receive SMS messages. VoIP and app-based numbers will not work.
3. The number's limit. If the number has already verified 3 accounts, sign in to one of them and ask support to unlink the number.

Without signing in, Anthropic support helps with only 3 things: deleting an account, exporting data and resolving subscription issues. To do that, select “I can't login” in the help window. There is no separate option for registration being refused.

If Claude will not let you in, choose what to work with based on your task and the options available to you; compare the alternatives above.

To continue working with models, visit Ailoot.