There's an issue with the selected model
The message
There's an issue with the selected modelWhat it means
The API refused the model name Claude Code sent. Either the name is wrong or retired, your account or provider doesn't offer that model, or (on older versions) your login had quietly expired.
What to do
Run /model and pick from the list, or use an alias like sonnet. If the bad name keeps coming back, it's saved in --model, ANTHROPIC_MODEL or a settings file.
This one arrives on the first message of a session, or right after you switch models, and the whole reply is one line:
There's an issue with the selected model (claude-sonnet-4-6). It may not exist or you may not have access to it. Run /model to pick a different model.The name in brackets is what Claude Code sent, and the API answered that it couldn't serve it. We read the 2.1.283 binary, where the line is built from an error Claude Code tags model_not_found, and Anthropic's own error reference. About 89 GitHub issues quote the "may not exist" half as of September 26, 2026.
Read the name in the brackets first
Most fixes come from looking hard at that string. A typo, a display name like "Sonnet 5" where an ID like claude-sonnet-5 belongs, or a dated ID that's since been retired will all land here. Current versions catch many typos earlier: since v2.1.200, /model rejects an unknown string on the spot with "is not a recognized model id" and suggests the nearest match. Before that, the bad string got saved and this error fired on the next request instead.
A name that's right can still be refused. When Anthropic suspended Fable 5 on June 12, 2026, issue #68128 filled with this exact line for claude-fable-5, because the model was gone for everyone. The error doesn't tell a withdrawn model apart from a mistyped one.
Why the wrong model keeps coming back
You fix it with /model, restart, and it's back. That means the stale name is saved somewhere with a higher priority than you think. Anthropic's model configuration page lists the places in this order: /model during a session, claude --model at launch, the ANTHROPIC_MODEL environment variable, the model field in a settings file, then ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_MODEL. A shell profile that exports ANTHROPIC_MODEL, or a project's .claude/settings.json pinned to an old ID, wins every time.
The docs suggest aliases (sonnet, opus, haiku) instead of full versioned IDs, since an alias resolves to a maintained default and doesn't go stale. In -p mode the hint at the end changes to Run --model, and the Agent SDK drops the hint entirely because the model there is set in code.
Bedrock, Vertex, Foundry and gateways
On a cloud provider the model has to exist in that provider's catalog, in your region, under the ID that provider uses. A new Claude model can reach the Anthropic API before Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud's Agent Platform or Microsoft Foundry offer it, and Anthropic's advice is to keep the previous version pinned until it appears there. Recent builds word this case differently ("The model ... is not available on your ... deployment"), but a September 2026 report with a Bedrock ARN in the brackets shows the old line still turns up.
Behind a third-party gateway or router, the gateway decides what names exist. One April report came from the VS Code extension pointed at OpenRouter, and in a July one the log shows the gateway's upstream provider answering 404. Check what model names your gateway accepts before blaming Claude Code.
When every model fails at once
If /model shows nothing you can use and each choice gives the same line, the model probably isn't the problem. Before v2.1.206, an expired claude.ai login that couldn't refresh made every model fail with this message. Newer versions say "Login expired" instead. Running /login fixes the old case, and claude update gets you the clearer wording. If a model you pay for still won't load, “Your account does not have access to Claude” covers the account-level refusals.
Other lines the same feature prints
Match yours against these if the one at the top of the page is not quite it. They come from the same code and mean related things.
There's an issue with the selected model (claude-...). It may not exist or you may not have access to it. Run /model to pick a different model.It may not exist or you may not have access to it. Run --model to pick a different model.The model NAME is not available on your Bedrock deployment. Try switching to NAME, or ask your admin to enable this model.