Two Claude Subscriptions on One Computer With a Shared Chat History

Verified: 8 August 2026, Windows 11. Claude Desktop 1.26832.0.0, Claude Code 2.1.222.

The problem

Under heavy use, Max 20x limits ($200/month) run out in two to three days. Instead of buying extra usage, the alternative is a second paid account.

When you switch accounts in the app, the chat list in the left panel goes empty. The conversations themselves are not lost — only the index of them becomes unavailable.

For comparison: in Google Antigravity, switching accounts has no consequences — the history stays where it is and nothing else is required. The behaviour described below is specific to Claude.

Where the data lives

Claude Code keeps its data in two different places, and that split is the whole explanation.

The config directory resolves to CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR or ~/.claude — there is no account component anywhere in that path. So everything except the chat list is already shared by default.

The local_*.json files hold nothing but session metadata: sessionId, cwd, branch, title, model, timestamps. There is no account identifier inside them — the binding comes purely from the directory name.

What does not work

The usual advice is to symlink ~/.claude/projects so that both accounts share the history.

It does not work. Claude Code has a path check that rejects symlinks on components under the config root, and it exits with an error:

components under the config root may not be symlinks; supported relocations:
symlink the whole config root at the home level (~/.claude) or point
CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR at the relocated directory

Only the entire ~/.claude directory may be relocated. Since it is already shared, there is nothing to gain.

What does work

The link goes not on the text storage but on the directory holding the chat list. The path %APPDATA%\Claude\claude-code-sessions\ falls outside the check: its boundary is anchored to a directory ending in .claude, or to a registered config root.

The second account's directory is replaced with an NTFS junction pointing at the first account's directory. Both accounts then work against one physical set of files — divergence is impossible by construction, and no synchronisation is needed.

Steps

1. Sign in under the second account once so the app creates a directory for it, then switch back to the first.
2. In %APPDATA%\Claude\claude-code-sessions\, identify the directories: the one containing local_*.json files belongs to the primary account, the freshly created empty one to the second. Each contains an organisation subdirectory.
3. Copy the primary account's directory to another drive as a backup.
4. Rename the organisation subdirectories under the second account (for example, add a -BACKUP suffix).
5. In their place, create a junction to the primary account's organisation subdirectory: New-Item -ItemType Junction -Path <second account path> -Target <first account path> Administrator rights are not required.
6. Verify: Get-ChildItem <second account directory> | Select Name, LinkType, Target — the type must be Junction, and the number of local_*.json files seen through the link must match the original.

Steps 4 and 5 can be delegated to Claude Code, though the renaming is better done by hand.

Closing the app is not required as long as the first account is active — the second account's directories are not in use at that moment.

What survives an account switch

Local MCP servers store their credentials in their own files on disk and have no relationship to the Claude account.

Limitations

The approach is undocumented. An app update may change the directory structure — the symptom will be the same empty list, no data is lost, and the junction is simply recreated.

Working under both accounts at once is not recommended: concurrent writes into the shared directory can cause conflicts. Sequential use is safe.

Scheduled tasks become shared and run under whichever account is active when they fire.

Verified on Windows only. Behaviour on macOS has not been tested.

Both subscriptions are paid separately and their quotas are consumed independently. This approach does not affect usage accounting.

Summary

Switching accounts does not lose conversations — only the left-panel index becomes unavailable. The conversation text and the entire configuration are shared from the start. Replacing the second account's index directory with a junction makes the list shared as well. Setup takes about 15 minutes and is fully reversible.