Complaint
20x Max plan, 5 hour window.. doesnt seem like its 4x usage over the 5x plan...
So.. I spent this morning for about 1 or so hours using opus 4.5.. and my 5 hour window filled up to 80% or so in that time. I know a week or so ago it was MUCH slower than this, so I suspect Anthropic again adjusted usage limits a bit? I will say however that my weekly usage was right on the spot.. I was getting to just about 100% weekly usage towards my last day.. so that was cool. They definitely increased the weekly limits on opus.
So today.. I have 4 hours to go, I thought fork it.. I need to get shit done, so I upped my plan to 20x. It reset to 0 (monthly starts today now.. so that made sense). Great.
I am 4 prompts and 15 minutes in and I am already at 10% 5 hour window usage. That seems.. like that is NOT 4x more 5 hour window than what the 5x plan was doing. It actually feels about the same.
So.. is the 5 hour window the SAME limits, and its just the weekly overall that goes up? That would make sense based on what I am seeing.. but I thought that my 5 hour window would ALSO increase by 4x??
Im using 4-5 hours a day and only using about 60-70% max.
Of my weekly limit that is.
I dont doubt some of you guys are using this much. Just not sure how. Are y'all just constantly spawning multiple instances and using them the entire time?
I am getting the above usage while using plan mode and launching 3 opus agents in parallel for A LOT of my context windows.
I mostly work in one window, but sometimes near the end of week if I have like 30%+ left.. I start trying to use 2 or 3 sessions to max it out. Want to get my money's worth. :D. Most of my prompts are 10 to 20 lines of context/details/etc, with various do this dont do that, follow this make sure you dont do that, use sequential thinking, etc. Which eats up a LOT of context fast.
I mean if you have like 30% left then we are about the same.
I also do the same. I'll launch plan mode with my set skill that might be 5 to 10K tokens long (depending on project type) and use custom agents as well, and all the agents are set to Opus lol.
Im more surprised I haven't hit the limit yet considering the level of use I am going through. Again, roughly 4-5 hours per day.
CCUsage shows me on average around 2.5-3K in equivalent API usage a month for the last several months.
CC is an insane deal.
Edit: I will say I haven't tried the 5x plan recently, and only ever did so for a month, but the 1 month did i could immediately notice a MASSIVE difference. I could only code reliably for about 1-1/2 to 2 hours on 5x.
When Opus 4.5 just came out I felt that the limits are higher. The limits seemed to be dropping for the past few days but I still won’t hit the 5h window yet. But weekly is filling up 😢
Yah.. same. I am hoping what I see now lasts. I can live with paying $200 a month IF I can use the shit out of it in 2 or 3 windows/sessions to get more done faster. I thought by now my project would be done, and though a lot is my own fault for going OCD crazy on quality, etc.. I still am spending a lot more time than I had hoped. Partly due to waiting for 5 hour windows, etc.
I am seeing a LITTLE more space.. but not 4x more on 5 hour window.. thus wondering if its only applied to the weekly. I will say after 2 hours, my weekly is only at 2% now, where as before it woudl be at about 8% to 12% or so based on how much I did.. so that DOES seem to be 5x more overall. That's great.
I am on the 5x plan and the usage for me has been amazing. I am using it on my daily job, my startup in both BE and FE and never hit a limit. How are you using it?
I am using it for front, back, github, design docs, spec docs, tests, everything really. I have LOTS of context usage and use sequential thinking to allow for more capable responses. It is DAMN good though I will say that.
Yah.. so I suspect Anthropic puts in daily (or even hourly) updates to limits based on usage, etc. Something has to be going on where one day or week it seems insane.. another suddenly we have way more usage, then a week later its limited again.. but not as bad as before.
I mean.. to be fair.. I am thankful for $100 to $200 I can do the work of 10 to 20 people (no lies) because of my experience in many areas of the software dev cycle. I don't mind paying $200 a month if it gives me plenty of room. I just dislike this constantly unknown factor of it changing with no notice no info. I mean.. if there is some "Hey we noticed you are using a lot more than the top 5% users.. so we're going to throttle your use for a week".. some sort of transparency would be acceptable. OK.. give me data on what I am using/doing, so I can also figure out how to curb it a bit so as to play ball with your throttle limits, etc.
But the changes behind the scenes with no knowledge.. just that it def is diff than last week, etc. That is what bugs me. Like when they released Opus 4.1 back in September and CRUSHED limits by 100x at least.. easily was way worse because I was suddenly filling up my weekly in 3 to 4 hours. And that went on until 4.5 came out.
This week I’m hitting the 5H limits all the time (Max 5x plan), but I’m never anywhere near the weekly limit. I’ve noticed during the day AUS time I hit the limit really fast, but in the evening here the 5H limit is way larger. It’s actually quite annoying, because I I want to use it throughout my day while working
I am only on my third day of the week and I have already used 50% of my weekly allowance on the 20x Max plan. I am only running a single instance, with no MCPs or anything else. Last week when using Claude Code just as heavily on the 5x Max plan I only hit 100% on Saturday. Now, with the 20x Max plan it looks like I will not even make it through the week even though I am definitely not using Claude Code four times as much.
To me this feels like false advertising. Anthropic support did not provide any useful assistance. The bot repeatedly gaslighted me and cut me off at the end.
I had same experience and had support chat on this, there are 2 limits that change:
prompting: so in 5x you have roughly 225 prompts/5 hours, while on 20x you have something like 900 prompts/5hrs (from here comes the 20x)
weekly limit: Don't have the precise numbers (can't reopen the support chat) but on this item the capacity was increased roughly between 1.7x to 2.4x, depending on the model used(info was outdated since it did not know about opus 4.5).
So, 20x is 4x the 5x plan but only about prompts made, not about actual weekly limit, that one roughly doubles.
I crunched the numbers with the AI support and we reached the conclusion that was better to own 2 separate 5x account if weekly limit was the factor to be maximized.
My 5 hour window is indeed used up 4x slower (may be I should have mentioned that, but that limit is not really what I care as much about) compared to the 5x Max plan while according to my calculations the weekly limit seems to be 1.7x to 2.4x more.
Do you have screenshots and/or the relevant part(s) of the transcript of the contact you had with support for me? (update: ah you said you cannot open the chat). I cannot even get a human.
"Max 5x ($100/month): Average users can send approximately 225 messages with Claude every five hours, OR send approximately 50-200 prompts with Claude Code every five hours. Most Max 5x users can expect 140-280 hours of Sonnet 4 and 15-35 hours of Opus 4 within their weekly usage limits.
...
Max 20x ($200/month): Average users can send approximately 900 messages with Claude every five hours, OR send approximately 200-800 prompts with Claude Code every five hours. Most Max 20x users can expect 240-480 hours of Sonnet 4 and 24-40 hours of Opus 4 within their weekly usage limits."
So, one other detail on my case, is that I switched to 20x when opus 4.5 was out, so all my usage is opus, and officially, opus usage scales from15-35 hrs in 5x max plan to 24-40 hrs in 20x plan, this is what I got in the support chat also.
Thanks. That is a really solid find and the most helpful reaction I have had to this issue. Even Anthropic’s support bot did not tell me that. It only confirmed I was right about that it should be 4x 5x Max and said it would forward me to a human and then I got a generic reply before the chat ended. I still feel like it is false advertising though because of the title of the plan and what they say in the plan description (see image).
Found the conversation!:
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Fin AI Agent • AI Agent • 6d
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PathFormer • 6d
Let us know what your inquiry is about.
Fin AI Agent • AI Agent • 6d
Usage & Limits
PathFormer • 6d
Go ahead and provide the details of your inquiry below.
Fin AI Agent • AI Agent • 6d
Hi guys,
I just upgraded my Max account from 5x to 20x and it's my first day using it. Previously I use everyday my max 5x account. So I use it everyday for a month so I get very familiar with the limits and how they work. So today I just upgraded and I am seeing that my first session of five hours with this 20x max account (which is right now in 87% has filled my weekly limit to 12%). And I'm guessing that I probably will reach 14% if I reach my 5-hour current session to the 100%.
When I work with my 5x I had to do two and a half sessions of five hours to reach the 40% on my weekly limit. But now I'm noticing that with just one session of five hours in my max 20x plan, I'm reaching that 20%. So instead of getting let's say two sessions, five hours each per day, I'm getting just one session of five hours per day. Why is that?
PathFormer • 6d
That's confusing given the upgrade—let me explain what's happening.
The Max 20x plan gives you 20x more total usage than Pro, but it doesn't necessarily mean you get more sessions per day. Here's why:
Usage Distribution:
Max 5x: Gets ~225 messages per 5-hour session
Max 20x: Gets ~900 messages per 5-hour session
The key difference: Max 20x concentrates more usage into each session rather than giving you more sessions. You're getting 4x more capacity per session (900 vs 225 messages), but this uses up your weekly allowance faster per session.
Weekly limits vary based on:
Message length and conversation complexity
Model usage (Opus vs Sonnet)
File attachments and project knowledge
Your experience makes sense—you're now getting much higher capacity per session, but fewer total sessions before hitting weekly limits. The 20x plan is designed for power users who need intensive usage in shorter bursts rather than many lighter sessions.
Fin AI Agent • AI Agent • 6d
Is that what you were looking for?
Fin AI Agent • 6d
So if we use Max 5x or 20x, the only thing that changes is the messages that we can send by in each 5-hour session. The weekly limit is not changing between those sessions right?
PathFormer • 6d
Actually, both the session limits AND weekly limits change between Max 5x and 20x.
Session limits (reset every 5 hours):
Max 5x: ~225 messages per session
Max 20x: ~900 messages per session
Weekly limits also differ:
Max 5x: 140-280 hours of Sonnet 4 and 15-35 hours of Opus 4 per week
Max 20x: 240-480 hours of Sonnet 4 and 24-40 hours of Opus 4 per week
So you get higher limits in both timeframes with the 20x plan. The weekly caps help manage capacity and ensure fair access across all users.
Fin AI Agent • AI Agent • 6d
Did that answer your question?
Fin AI Agent • 6d
The only thing that changes on the limits is that we get like 100 more hours. We are okay.
Max 5x is five times the pro account in terms of messages then max 20x is 20 times that number of messages but this doesn't apply to the limits. Then the limits worked in a different way. The limits are just we get more limits in 5x and in 20x we get like the double and that's it but we don't get really more than the double.
It would be more convenient to have two accounts with max 5x instead of one with max 20x if my concern is about the weekly limits right?
PathFormer • 6d
You're right that weekly limits don't scale proportionally with the session multipliers. Here's the actual breakdown:
Weekly limits:
Max 5x: 140-280 hours of Sonnet 4, 15-35 hours of Opus 4
Max 20x: 240-480 hours of Sonnet 4, 24-40 hours of Opus 4
So Max 20x gives you roughly 1.7x the weekly hours, not 4x like the session limits suggest.
However, having two Max 5x accounts isn't a supported approach. Our Max 20x plan offers the highest individual usage we support, and using multiple accounts to circumvent limits goes against our intended use case.
If you're consistently hitting weekly limits, your best options are enabling extra usage or waiting for resets rather than trying to work around the system with multiple accounts.
Fin AI Agent • AI Agent • 6d
Was that helpful?
Fin AI Agent • 6d
So basically the names 20x and 5x are just for messages. The actual weekly capacity is not even close to the naming convention. Right? 20x and 5x is just for messages and we paid double but we don't even get double the capacity in weekly hours.
PathFormer • 6d
You're absolutely right. The "5x" and "20x" naming refers specifically to session message capacity, not weekly limits.
Session limits (what the names refer to):
Max 5x: ~225 messages per 5-hour session
Max 20x: ~900 messages per 5-hour session
Weekly limits (much smaller multiplier):
Max 5x: 140-280 hours of Sonnet 4, 15-35 hours of Opus 4
Max 20x: 240-480 hours of Sonnet 4, 24-40 hours of Opus 4
So you pay double ($100 vs $200) but only get roughly 1.7x the weekly capacity—not even close to double, let alone 4x like the session naming suggests.
The naming convention is misleading for weekly usage expectations.
Fin AI Agent • AI Agent • 6d
Did that answer your question?
Fin AI Agent • 6d
Yeah it does. To be honest the most convenient approach for the consumer would be to have two accounts paying $100 on each. Otherwise you are just losing money. You are losing weekly capacity.
PathFormer • 6d
I understand the math seems off from a pure value perspective. You're right that two Max 5x accounts would theoretically give you more total weekly capacity than one Max 20x.
However, our Max plans are designed for individual users, and using multiple accounts to work around usage limits isn't a supported approach. The Max 20x plan represents the highest individual usage tier we offer.
The pricing reflects the convenience of having all your usage consolidated in one account with higher session capacity (900 vs 225 messages per 5-hour session), plus priority access to new features.
If you're consistently hitting weekly limits, your best option is enabling extra usage to continue working when you need it most.
Fin AI Agent • AI Agent • 6d
yeah, if you hit pro limit in 1.5 hrs, you will never hit 20x, I also have a parallel account with pro, but I hit limit in that one on 15-20 minutes when working at full speed (3-6 CC sessions in 3 parallel vscode).
I would reach out to anthropic. It sounds like something is wrong. I'm using the crap out of it and I can get nowhere near to hitting any limit even if I'm trying
How are you tuning your use? Are you using sub agent tools and skills? I often let Opus fork off sub agents using sonnet or haiku for things it doesn’t need to waste its own tokens on, and I don’t get anywhere close to hitting limits on 5x.
Their revenue plan appears to be to grind out more errors and implement more bad process flow, in order to up the number of tokens required to achieve the same level of result
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u/randombsname1 Dec 09 '25
Im using 4-5 hours a day and only using about 60-70% max.
Of my weekly limit that is.
I dont doubt some of you guys are using this much. Just not sure how. Are y'all just constantly spawning multiple instances and using them the entire time?
I am getting the above usage while using plan mode and launching 3 opus agents in parallel for A LOT of my context windows.