Claude Code Unlimited: Full Setup Guide (No Rate Limits)

Claude Code is one of the best AI coding tools available today, but official rate limits are brutal for heavy users: halfway through a refactor, the session stalls with a rate-limit message and you wait minutes — sometimes until a usage window resets — before you can continue. This guide walks through connecting Claude Code (and optionally Codex) to Zivv, an AI API gateway that removes that ceiling. The whole setup takes about three minutes and comes down to exactly two environment variables.

Why Claude Code Hits Rate Limits

Official Claude enforces per-account limits on requests per minute (RPM) and tokens per minute (TPM). Claude Code is unusually token-hungry: a single large refactor can pull dozens of files into context, fire off a chain of tool calls, and burn through an account's quota in one session. Subscription plans stack usage windows on top of that, so even paying users hit the wall on a normal workday.

Zivv works around this with its Claude MAX group: a pool of Claude subscription accounts that your requests rotate across, exposed through the native Anthropic protocol. From your side nothing changes — same models, same behavior, same streaming — but no single account's quota is ever your bottleneck, so in practice the rate limits disappear.

The same key also works against Zivv's OpenAI-compatible endpoint (https://zivv.pro/v1) and Gemini-compatible endpoint (https://zivv.pro/v1beta). One key covers 100+ models and drives Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Cline, and Cherry Studio without separate accounts per provider.

Step 1: Register and Top Up

1. Create an account at zivv.pro with your email
2. Top up your balance — the minimum is ¥10, at a rate of ¥1 = $1
3. Billing is pay-as-you-go: you pay for the tokens you use, with no subscription to maintain

There is nothing to install on Zivv's side. Once the balance exists, every protocol endpoint is live.

Step 2: Create an API Key

1. Open the console and go to the API Keys page
2. Create a new key and name it after the machine or tool, for example "Claude Code - MacBook"
3. Copy the value — it looks like sk-xxx — and store it in a password manager

Treat the key like a password: never commit it to a repository, paste it into shared documents, or reuse one key across your whole team. Per-device keys make usage easy to attribute and painless to revoke.

Step 3: Configure Claude Code

Claude Code selects its backend through two environment variables. Point them at Zivv and launch:

export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=https://zivv.pro
export ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN=sk-your-key-here
claude

On Windows PowerShell:

$env:ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL="https://zivv.pro"
$env:ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN="sk-your-key-here"
claude

Note that the base URL is https://zivv.pro with no /v1 suffix. The /v1 path belongs to the OpenAI-compatible endpoint, and appending it here is the single most common misconfiguration.

To make the change permanent on macOS or Linux, append the exports to your shell profile:

echo 'export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=https://zivv.pro' >> ~/.zshrc
echo 'export ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN=sk-your-key-here' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

Use ~/.bashrc if you run bash. On Windows, set both values in the system environment variables panel so every new terminal picks them up.

Step 4: Configure Codex (Optional)

Codex speaks the OpenAI protocol, which Zivv also serves — with the same key:

export OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://zivv.pro/v1
export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-your-key-here
codex

No second signup, no second balance. Claude Code and Codex draw from the same account.

Environment Variable Reference

Step 5: Verify the Connection

Run a one-shot prompt from the terminal:

claude "Explain closures in one sentence"

A normal answer means you are connected. To confirm the key independently of Claude Code, request the model list directly:

curl https://zivv.pro/v1/models \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk-your-key-here"

If the model list comes back, the key, balance, and endpoint are all working, and any remaining issue is local client configuration.

If Something Goes Wrong

• 401 Unauthorized: the key was copied incompletely or an old key is still cached in the shell. Follow the 401 troubleshooting checklist
• 404 Not Found: you almost certainly appended /v1 to ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL. Remove it and restart the terminal
• Variables not taking effect: environment changes only apply to new shells — close the terminal, reopen it, and confirm with echo $ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL
• Detailed options: model mapping, timeouts, and proxy settings are covered in the Claude Code setup docs

FAQ

Q: Could my prompts or code leak? A: No. Zivv does not store prompt or response bodies — only usage metadata for billing. All traffic is encrypted in transit, and the product is fully self-developed rather than a repackaged open-source proxy.

Q: Will the account pool run out and cut off my service? A: No. Continuously replenishing the pool is core to how Zivv operates, with dedicated monitoring of pool size and health. That rotation is exactly what makes the no-rate-limit experience possible.

Q: How do I switch back to the official API? A: Remove or restore the two environment variables and open a new terminal. The switch is instant in both directions and nothing else on your machine changes.

Q: Which models can I use? A: The full Anthropic lineup plus OpenAI and Gemini models — including claude-opus-4-8, claude-sonnet-5, gpt-5.5, and gemini-3.5-flash — all through one key. Browse the current catalog in Model Hub.

Q: Can my whole team use this? A: Yes. Teams gives you a shared balance with an independent key and budget per member, plus usage analytics by member, key, and model.

Wrap-Up

Two environment variables stand between you and rate-limit-free Claude Code: ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=https://zivv.pro and ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN=sk-.... If you write code with AI all day, create a key and see how a session feels when it never gets throttled.