Claude Code new limits – Important updates to your Max account usage limits

90 pointsivanvas8mo ago3 comments

Hi there,

Next month, we're introducing new weekly rate limits for Claude subscribers, affecting less than 5% of users based on current usage patterns.

Claude Code, especially as part of our subscription bundle, has seen unprecedented growth. At the same time, we’ve identified policy violations like account sharing and reselling access—and advanced usage patterns like running Claude 24/7 in the background—that are impacting system capacity for all. Our new rate limits address these issues and provide a more equitable experience for all users.

What’s changing:

Starting August 28, we're introducing weekly usage limits alongside our existing 5-hour limits:

    Current: Usage limit that resets every 5 hours (no change)
    New: Overall weekly limit that resets every 7 days
    New: Claude Opus 4 weekly limit that resets every 7 days
    As we learn more about how developers use Claude Code, we may adjust usage limits to better serve our community.

What this means for you:

    Most users won't notice any difference. The weekly limits are designed to support typical daily use across your projects. 
    Most Max 20x users can expect 240-480 hours of Sonnet 4 and 24-40 hours of Opus 4 within their weekly rate limits. Heavy Opus users with large codebases or those running multiple Claude Code instances in parallel will hit their limits sooner.
    If you do reach a weekly usage limit, you’ll have the option to purchase more usage at standard API rates to continue working without interruption. This is completely optional.
    You can manage or cancel your subscription anytime in Settings.

We take these decisions seriously. We're committed to supporting long-running use cases through other options in the future, but until then, weekly limits will help us maintain reliable service for everyone. Max 20x subscribers can purchase additional usage at standard API rates if needed.

We also recognize that during this same period, users have encountered several reliability and performance issues. We've been working to fix these as quickly as possible and will continue addressing any remaining issues over the coming days and weeks.

–The Anthropic Team

3 comments

sea-gold8mo ago

Other thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44713757

tomhow8mo ago

Comments moved thither. Thanks!

w10-18mo ago

I would just say I think this is great communication. It's direct but explanatory, and addresses multiple issues without exposing details.

Also the timing is close enough to be relevant, but far enough to plan, and nicely placed near a (US) holiday.

But it doesn't address a fairness question: if you signed up for an annual subscription, should you get the service levels in place at the time of your commitment?

Also it sneaks in some quality issues:

   during this same period, users users have 
   encountered several reliability and performance issues

There I would appreciate a link to a system performance dashboard, so users could see whether others are experiencing difficulties, and purchasers could assess SLA's. I want them to address quality directly instead of hand-waving about bad actors.

I would add that I like Kagi's approach: they give you your choice of models, and show you how many credits you've used, so you can buy more credits or fall back to cheaper models in advance of being capped. Help people plan!

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse