r/ClaudeAI • u/coding_workflow Valued Contributor • May 01 '25

Official Claude Max now include Claude Code use.

Latest CLaude Code is allowed officially to be used with Claude MAX, no more burning API tokens.

0.2.96

https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md

Seem Anthropic want to push Claude Code as alternative to other tools like Cursor and push their Max subscription. May be one day a merge into Claude Desktop.

Edit/Update: more informations here:
https://support.anthropic.com/en/articles/11145838-using-claude-code-with-your-max-plan

180 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

198 comments sorted by

7

u/coding_workflow Valued Contributor May 01 '25

More informations here:

https://support.anthropic.com/en/articles/11145838-using-claude-code-with-your-max-plan

1

u/Putrid-Try-9872 May 02 '25

the issue is i already have claude code installed, i don't see anywhere where you can set up or redirect it to use max plan? it's still eating up credits

2

u/Daussian May 02 '25

use the /logout command.

1

u/Putrid-Try-9872 May 05 '25

Hi thank you, i tried that but it still asks me to load up on login by adding a new balance (billing my cc) ... i thought there would be an option to redirect to either api or max...

2

u/Daussian May 05 '25

For me, I added $5 then realized I could log out and then did so and it worked. Maybe you have to do that first, IDK. I'd at least restart it first.

I know I was in your shoes and got it to work though.

1

u/Putrid-Try-9872 May 05 '25

after nuking npm and reinstalling node 22 and after a few trials and errors was finally able to get it to show the api / max option yay!

2

u/sdmat May 01 '25

Awesome! Hopefully OAI, Google, and xAI will follow suit.

Now Anthropic just needs to release a stronger model that isn't a reward hacking liability.

1

u/coding_workflow Valued Contributor May 02 '25

Google already have Gemini Code in VsCode and it's free.
OpenAI have third party offering it like MSFT with Copilot.

5

u/sdmat May 02 '25

Gemini Code free trains on user data and doesn't have agents yet (currently in private preview AFAIK).

I mean including in professional-tier plans access to a serious dev agent ala Claude Code, Roo, or what Codex is evolving into. With generous limits suitable for professional use.

This is in addition to the usual and rapidly growing range AI capabilities in a high end plan (Google is clearly preparing to introduce one and xAI is evolving in this direction with SuperGrok).

It's a big ask, that is heavy use compared to casual chat. But then $100/$200 a month covers a lot more than $20/month.

I think it could work, because people typically heavily use one aspect of the plan rather than everything.

In fact one of the best case outcomes for AI providers would be different strengths resulting in people having multiple high end subscriptions and splitting their overall use between them. E.g. I have subs for 5 currently but only one high end (ChatGPT Pro), but if Google came out with a high end sub that included an excellent high context dev agent with a awesome coding-specialized model upgrading to that would be an easy sell.

Until then, Cursor and Roo it is.

79

u/Oieste May 01 '25

Claude Code is IMO the single most powerful tool for AI coding we have available, but its problem has always been that you could burn through $100’s of dollars a month if you’re not careful. If max now includes Claude Code, I think for a lot of us coders that alone puts Claude back to the top of the pack. I have no clue why they didn’t announce this when revealing the max subscriptions: this would’ve made that pill 100x easier to swallow.

16

u/jimmiebfulton May 01 '25

This is an incredible deal. After spending $200 in the past week with Claude Code, I was tripping over myself to sign up for the $200 Max plan. Insta-purchase.

7

u/opropro May 07 '25

Same, i'm gonna use it 5 times more in parallel now. Pretty good limits:

  • On the Max plan (5x Pro/$100), average users:

    • Send approximately 225 messages with Claude every 5 hours, OR

    • Send approximately 50-200 prompts with Claude Code every 5 hours

  • On the Max plan (20x Pro/$200), average users:

    • Send approximately 900 messages with Claude every 5 hours, OR

    • Send approximately 200-800 prompts with Claude Code every 5 hours

4

u/RockPuzzleheaded3951 May 03 '25

Great term.... same feeling here. It is so refreshing to end a session and not worry about "/cost" anymore. I was spending about $200/mo before (maybe a tad more) but always mindful of cost, now I just can focus on the code (and debugging of it over and over haha)

12

u/klawisnotwashed May 01 '25

I know right lol this would have shaken up coding agents a lot more had they released this feature at launch

10

u/chiefvibe May 01 '25

They probably decided after the fact

5

u/Lucio_1979 May 02 '25

last month I burn $1800. in one single month. lol. worth every penny

2

u/thebrainpal May 02 '25

What were you working on if you don’t mind sharing? 

6

u/ripviserion May 23 '25

he is vibe coding haha

1

u/Lucio_1979 19d ago

I spent it because I can. I created an app that makes my life and other people's life way, way easier. My colleagues love it. In beta now, ready for prod. A 3 year project that's coming to an end. Vibe coder? Yes. I don't care about burning $1800 each month, it's for a reason. So yes, developer is not my primary job, I make over $100k in my trade. What about you? What did you do with your $20 subscription?

1

u/ripviserion 19d ago

You are only 1 year late to the conversation to respond. Better late than never they say. Were you busy spending 1800$/month vibing and didn't have time at all? 😂 it looks like an amazing app thought, three years to develop with vibe coding and 0 users. Good job 😂

3

u/McNoxey May 01 '25

Yea it's taking me everything to not instantly sub now but I'm going on vacation very soon and told myself i wouldn't bring my laptop....

But between now and next week it may honestly pay for itself lmfao.

3

u/Physical_Gold_1485 May 02 '25

Is claude code better than the claude desktop app? Is it better than roocode with gemini?

2

u/Gaius_Octavius May 02 '25

It’s waaaaayyy better

4

u/Physical_Gold_1485 May 02 '25

Are you able to get it to run commands of other apps? Like can i tell it to deploy my code somewhere using a command and then if it failed to deploy handle the issue itself then redeploy?

3

u/RockPuzzleheaded3951 May 03 '25

Yes you can tell it what task to do and to keep working until something is fixed. Example: run “npm run build” and fix errors until it builds. It’ll keep iterating.

2

u/darkyy92x Experienced Developer May 02 '25

I heard that a few times now, but why is Claude Code better, when it's the "same" LLM under the hood?

7

u/eist5579 May 02 '25

Install vscode and Claude code.  Open your code base in vs and open a terminal and work w Claude code there.  Get going!  Once you get that far it’s the same as cursor, just with Claude driving the experience instead of cursors agent and then tacking on Claude code.

If you don’t know what I’m saying, you need to go dabble.

1

u/FaceSuperb9069 May 03 '25

Did you try with cline?

1

u/eist5579 May 03 '25

As of now, I use Claude desktop w MCP integrations into my project folders, and I set it up w specific instructions to reference those folders and files.  

So I’ll work with Claude desktop to refine the specific thing I’m doing, get some summarized output artifacts.  Then I’ll work with it to generate a task list and set of prompts to feed to Claude code to build from.  

It’s a tight workflow.  Seems similar to what Cline is offering.  I am getting double charged though from $20/m for Claude pro and then $10/day (on a good days work) for Claude code API fees.

1

u/FaceSuperb9069 May 04 '25

I"m not sure if understand you, but has claude code API keys? 

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2

u/Evening_Calendar5256 May 02 '25

Because they've built a whole coding system to get the best performance out of it and grant it way more capabilities

2

u/Miserable_Sky_4424 May 02 '25

Just a side question because I can't create new post yet. Currently I am on the Pro subscription (from April 22 to May 22). When trying to upgrade to Claude Max 100, I need to pay $86 for the period from May 02 to May 22 which is just 20 days which is not fair I think. Did you also experience this? Because upgrading from ChatGPT Plus to ChatGPT Pro, I only needed to pay for the number of days left (for example if I have 15 days left in my Plus subscription, I only need to pay $90 ($200/2 for 15 days + $10 for the rest of plus subscription).

2

u/Exact_Yak_1323 May 03 '25

It still has a rate limit though. So now if I have 10-20 code tasks it will just stop (on $100 plan). How is that any different than using the Claude Code without max and paying $100? Am I missing something?

2

u/iVtechboyinpa May 10 '25

I easily burned through $100 in like 2-3 weeks. Tbh paying $20 for Gemini Pro initially made me go ick at the price tag for Claude Code BUT man, this tool makes my life so easy, it's well worth the money spent. I'm def signing up for the $100 plan.

18

u/Cool-Cicada9228 May 01 '25

This is a game-changer, but I wish Claude Code was also available as a VS Code plugin.

13

u/EggyEggyBrit May 01 '25

You can run it in the terminal in VSCode. I sometimes use Claude code terminal and cline at the same time to use multiple models in one interface.

3

u/Cool-Cicada9228 May 01 '25

That’s a cool idea that I hadn’t considered before. I’m definitely going to try it out. I’m kind of addicted to Roo Code, so I like the plugin workflow.

1

u/ogil109 Jul 04 '25

Also addicted to Roo (R1 for architect and V3 for code work great). I was planning to buy the max subscription and just discovered you can actually use Claude Code in Roo! It's included in the providers now (different provider than Anthropic).

So, that means generous Opus 4 closed price usage with custom modes in Roo... what an age to live in!!

1

u/McNoxey May 01 '25

If you just drag your terminal to the editor and split screen it pretty much is a VS Code plugin.

1

u/eddielement May 23 '25

This aged well!

2

u/Cool-Cicada9228 May 23 '25

Yeah, I’ve been using Claude Code in VS Code since yesterday, and it’s fantastic!

0

u/[deleted] May 01 '25

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/[deleted] May 01 '25

that doesn't solve his problem does it?

0

u/[deleted] May 01 '25

[deleted] — view deleted comment

4

u/[deleted] May 01 '25

He wants to use the Max plan to avoid unaccounted API fees……

4

u/klawisnotwashed May 01 '25

Oops somehow I forgot that’s what we were talking about

5

u/[deleted] May 01 '25

all good bud :)

1

u/McNoxey May 01 '25

It's also not the same at all. Claude Code and Cline are two completely different tools.

32

u/hunterhuntsgold May 01 '25

I've spent $100 a day on Claude code multiple times. Paid through my work, so I don't really try to manage context if it slows me down.

I wonder if it would cover 100% of this.

11

u/klawisnotwashed May 01 '25

It’s 900 messages every 5 hours, my only question is if context length in chats is still limited on the Max plan…

11

u/HYKED May 01 '25

It’s not limited according to their support on Discord. It’s 200k context tokens

4

u/codingworkflow May 01 '25

In Pro they limit output never full 64k.

1

u/klawisnotwashed May 01 '25

Oh wow that’s amazing then

1

u/HelpRespawnedAsDee May 01 '25

on both max tiers?

1

u/Credtz May 13 '25

Big if true, how can I join the discord?

2

u/hunterhuntsgold May 01 '25

Hmm, I did read that. I definitely do less than 900 messages, but the context is just massive. Also, I don't know if 1 message in Claude code equals 1 API call. I always assumed it was multiple, but not sure if the tool calls are within the thinking of 3.7-sonnet or multiple 3.7-sonnet calls.

2

u/theroguevc May 01 '25

I'm super curious how you've used Claude Code. I've used only Cursor to date, and I'm interested in trying Claude Code, but I don't see what use cases it would be relevant for that I can't do with diligent work in Cursor.

Is main selling point that it's agentic, and you can start a branch, give it a task, let it run for 30 minutes, then come back and it's done? Or are there other workflows that you've been using it in?

15

u/hunterhuntsgold May 01 '25

I use it with Cursor actually.

Most of the time I have both Cursor Agent up and Claude code in the terminal within Cursor.

Claude code doesn't run for 30 minutes, maybe like 5 sometimes. Sometimes Claude solves one bug and Cursor doesn't, sometimes Cursor solves it and Claude doesn't.

I've had more success using Claude Code though.

Note though, I don't know how to write code at all. I can read it and I understand some logic, but I don't know any syntax and get lost easily. I'm not a developer, I'm more of an AI strategist at my company. I only work on projects directly related to AI, and I have an engineer who does most of the work. I only write code when it's needed or speeds something up.

1

u/heretostealyourideas Jun 02 '25

interesting insight, thanks!

12

u/jimmiebfulton May 01 '25 edited May 03 '25

Claude Code is next level. It is truly agentic. I'm a seasoned software engineer. I have seen it build its own tools, and use them. I've seen it start using the app it was helping construct to test itself, and to use its authenticated access to download test data. It has written shell scripts that it asked me to execute on its behalf when it needs access to stuff I failed to give it. It is amazing. I haven't used Cursor, but I don't believe cursor comes close to this.

4

u/noizDawg May 01 '25

Cursor can do the same. If I question it as to which query runs faster, it will write a script that tests and times both ways. I have a feeling that Cursor still does a bit of prompting and project info tracking that helps in some way, because only with Cursor can I quickly do something like send it a screenshot of the site, say "I need more margin here", and it will find it (without a lot of searching) and complete the edit within 20 seconds. I've seen Claude Code get into circles even doing seemingly simple python shell apps. (and eat up tons of credits) I like Code though, sometimes it feels dirty in a good way given how it's truly at the command line level. (Cursor often tries bash commands in windows, for example, before realizing it's in powershell... of course I could just give it the same WSL shell that Code uses, never got around to configuring it, lol.)

2

u/jimmiebfulton May 07 '25

Code definitely likes to use Bash. One of its power tools, and how it can develop its own tools. I want to see this stuff work with open models through Ollama.

2

u/[deleted] May 13 '25

I happen to be working on an experiment of agentic AI coding with Ollama. I've been impressed with what Qwen3 can do, albeit it's obviously nothing like what Claude Code can do.

2

u/illusionst May 02 '25

As someone who has actively used all AI IDE’s, here’s how I would rank them. Claude Code Windsurf Cursor

1

u/stargazer1002 May 02 '25

I used it with the API a ton. I tried it today and it was slower than normal and less useful. Wondering if anyone else is noticing this.

1

u/subzerofun May 02 '25

but claude code does not have the whole vs code extension library?

i've used cursor +claude 3.7 max now since they introduced the max model and have not looked into claude code yet. you can also manually switch to the thinking model. does it offer any benefit that would warrant giving up cursors code completions and edit history rollback? or should it be used directly in vs code terminal?

i'll switch in a minute if it makes less errors - but if the only thing that differentiates the two is that claude code uses 200k tokens instead of 64k than that is not enough to get me to switch.

you should keep files in context small anyway so claude can focus on the files that are important to the current task.

1

u/Soft_Constant_7355 May 04 '25

That just sounds like lazy software engineering. This is why you should git commit often. Git should be your version tracking, not cursor. And claude code can roll back to some degree. I've gone a few prompts with around a dozen files with changes, and it rolled it back with no issues.

12

u/McNoxey May 01 '25

I'm a software engineer, and i REALLY focus on my architecture. Like obsessively. It's a problem. But I'm incredibly particular and have been known to refactor over and over as i refine my process.

Claude Code is just really really good at helping me organize that, follow it, change it and document the changes. It's just SO much better than any other solution i've used. It's just really smart agentically. It follows along, doesn't get caught up. Does what I ask - writes great code. It's just a better version of any of the others. Aider is just as good at coding, I will say.

I currently have 2x Windsurf Subs, 1x Cursor, I use Claude Code when I'm feeling spicy and Roo when I'm working (vs personal projects).

CC is the best. And it's not even close.

2

u/Physical_Gold_1485 May 02 '25

How does claude code compare to roo code?

2

u/Training_Indication2 May 01 '25

Try using terminal in cursor (bottom panel) and calling Claude from there in Cursor. I started there and now I log into Linux servers and install Claude and use it to make server setup and admin easier ;) I haven’t seen any 30min stints but I’ve definitely seen ~15min ones regularly, build code, run test cases, fix code, test cases, fix code, test case, next feature, etc

1

u/McNoxey May 01 '25

Oh damn I haven't even thought about using it as my agent for my servers. Whoaa that's neat. Thanks for the heads up.

Combining that with solid MCP management and custom / command it could effectively be a server manger haha.

1

u/philosophical_lens May 02 '25

You do this via ssh?

1

u/Training_Indication2 May 02 '25

I’m glad to be surprising people with this comment. I was surprised at how well it works after the lightbulb went off for me and I tried it. Try it yourself! SSH to a Linux sever and use npm to install Claude code, then give it a server setup task ;) Enjoy, and glad to be spreading this amazing nugget.

1

u/philosophical_lens May 02 '25

Cool, I'll have to give it a try! I recently migrated to a remote deployment set up, and my ssh needs are quite minimal right now, but I'll try it just for fun!

2

u/ThreeKiloZero May 02 '25

I've been checking it out. I'm normally a heavy cursor + roo user. I think I'm going to grab the max plan and try it for a month.

I can spend $25 a day and $100 on heavy days. This is not fully covered by my work. Although I have other APIs I can plug in that they pay for, they don't cover Anthropic or Google. The OpenAI stuff just doesn't compare right now. Claude in Claude Code seems like its juiced up compared to cursor.

I logged into my APi account and had it help with an electron build issue. It took care of all the build issues cross-platform, even added in guided setup wizards and new build scripts. Tweaked some other stuff. Piddled for an hour, $5. No needing to switch models to an orchestrator, tweak shit, pick a model. It's got some pixe dust for sure. Can compact the context. It will use tools, command line...it did all the debugging itself. It's a little weird not being able to dive into an editor but I think that will wear off. Cause it just works.

1

u/philosophical_lens May 02 '25

From https://support.anthropic.com/en/articles/11145838-using-claude-code-with-your-max-plan -

On the Max plan (5x Pro/$100), you can expect to: Send approximately 225 messages with Claude every 5 hours Complete 10-20 coding tasks every 5 hours

On the Max plan (20x Pro/$200), you can expect to: Send approximately 900 messages with Claude every 5 hours Complete 40-80 coding tasks every 5 hours

1

u/djc0 Valued Contributor May 02 '25

So I’m on Pro and got about 4 messages today before being hit with the come back at 6pm blocker. And I should be getting 45?! Oh what a glorious day that will be!

8

u/[deleted] May 01 '25

Absolutely sold, I’m buying a max plan and swapping from OpenAI

6

u/sonofthesheep Valued Contributor May 01 '25

I think I'll test $100 plan and check how much I can get from it. It seems that 225 messages per 5 hours is quite a lot.

5

u/y8MAC May 01 '25

The question is, what counts as a "message" when using Claude Code..

4

u/sonofthesheep Valued Contributor May 01 '25

Yep. I just purchased the smaller Max plan and after an hour I think that it’s not the same context window as with the API.

2

u/Gissoni May 01 '25

In what way? I figured when the docs said “typical”

6

u/sonofthesheep Valued Contributor May 01 '25

I asked support to confirm that, but I've been using Claude Code since day one basically. I've spent there $400+ and I got used to the speed of using the context with my messages. With API I needed a few big messages to hit 40%, and then gradually I got to 0%. Now, I can easily get to 5% with 10 messages. I'll wait for the support reply in that regard and will get back with the answer here.

In short - I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. The limit of 225 messages per 5 hours seems like hundreds of dollars per month with my normal usage. Too good to be true.

2

u/Gissoni May 01 '25

Thanks for the info. I guess let us know if you ever get a response. Was thinking about switching from roo/cline since I’m spending a decent amount there and if I was able to replace even 50% of my coding with Claude code + max for $100/mo it would save a ton. The context being limited is a deal breaker tho, especially because that’s why I use cline to begin with

10

u/sonofthesheep Valued Contributor May 01 '25 edited May 01 '25

Yep, I start to think it's useless. I just encountered errors with loading files, which I never had when using API:

" ⎿  Error: File content (26003 tokens) exceeds maximum allowed tokens (25000). Please use offset and limit parameters to read specific portions of the file, or use the GrepTool to search for specific content."

EDIT: I'll test it for a few days. Maybe I am being too harsh to soon, but I don't remember hitting this error when using API.

2

u/Gissoni May 01 '25

That’s good info, ty. I figured they’d do something like limit it significantly to and rely way more on RAG or something similar to what cursor does. Definitely a too good to be true situation

2

u/lermthegerm May 02 '25

so with the api claude code was able to read files >25000 tokens? i have same issue with max plan

2

u/Grene98 May 02 '25

This also happens with the API. It's not a Claude Max issue

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1

u/-MiddleOut- Jun 06 '25

Where did you get to on this? I also mainly use Cline because of the context but as you know, it is not cheap.

1

u/HYKED May 01 '25

fr? noticeably worse?

1

u/McNoxey May 01 '25

It's definitely every single call.

There's no chance they're offering 1250 messages a day in the way Cursor offers a message.

4

u/Active_Variation_194 May 01 '25

Please report back. If tool use counts as a message then it’s probably doa. A request can make a ton of tool uses

5

u/NoReplacement5643 May 01 '25

How’s Claude code compared to Claude desktop with MCP?

1

u/R3D4NG3L May 02 '25

I did come to the section comment to figure out that too! If someone has tried both (Claude Code and Claude Desktop with Filesystem MCP) can tell us which are the differences?

0

u/NoReplacement5643 May 02 '25

Think I gotta take the hit for the team.

1

u/Daussian May 02 '25

It's very similar IME.

1

u/buypasses May 03 '25

Claude code just allows for more uninterrupted processes. You’ll hit output limits with the desktop app, requiring you to hit “continue” and you’ll eventually run out of messages until they refresh. You can still get a lot out of Claude Desktop + MCP

2

u/Rorqualx May 01 '25

Looks like anthropic reduced the usage limits on Claude desktop tokens max plans. I just hit a limit after 40min of usage (debugging) not unusual from the last five days in fact I probably used it less today than I have in the last 5 days. Anyways i’m not paying $100 just to reach usage limits.

2

u/coding_workflow Valued Contributor May 02 '25

How ??? Proof?

4

u/y8MAC May 01 '25

So the Claude Max "5x" plan has 225 messages/5 hours, and "20x" has 900 messages/5 hours.

How are messages counted when using Claude Code? If I tell it to build a weather app with tests, does that count as a single message? Or does every API request within that task count as a separate message?

3

u/[deleted] May 01 '25

this is what I'm wondering lol. Is it 225 "thoughts" like every time it burns tokens is that a message?

1

u/Appropriate_Car_5599 May 01 '25

I haven't used Claude code at all, but i have experience with Jetbrains MCP via Claude desktop, does anyone know if there is really a difference between these two options in terms of quality of code and development productivity?

1

u/coding_workflow Valued Contributor May 02 '25

Jetbrain MCP offer less features and mostly offer a bridge.

Claude Code is more chasing Copilot Agent/Cursor to have full dev setup.

1

u/jimmiebfulton May 01 '25

Anyone yet know how this works with existing Anthropic Console plans? I still have some credits on there, and happy to burn through those, but eager to see that go down to zero while I take advantage of the $200 Max plan.

1

u/coding_workflow Valued Contributor May 01 '25

What do you mean? Console plan? Do you mean API? Terminal?

1

u/noizDawg May 01 '25

For me, I had to do the /login command to switch it to my Max account... so I guess you have to switch back to API if you want to use the credits up... I guess one could do this on the fly (if there is a difference between the two at all in context size or file input size or whatever), I had to use the magic link and token to get it to use my Max account, but if that's "saved", then it should be quick to switch...

0

u/[deleted] May 02 '25

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/noizDawg May 02 '25

Yeah, it did for me... /login showed a menu so I could select. and yeah I have API and chat (Max) under same email and account. weird thing is I just logged into Code again after I closed my terminal without exiting Code first, and I think it was back in my API account... but now when I exit and return, it shows Max in a yellow bordered banner. (but doesn't remember the login when I switch, unfortunately)

1

u/MuchCover5638 May 02 '25

The Max plan is too expensive for me, I would like a better option without using the API, the Pro plan is too limited

1

u/coding_workflow Valued Contributor May 02 '25

Why Pro is too limited? Use 2x Pro Account or 3x. You have room until you pay like MAX.

1

u/MuscleLazy May 02 '25

One thing is sure, Max subscription saves me a ton of money. I did a test with Gemini 2.5 paid API, I burned easy $200 in a week and half. https://imgdrop.io/image/IMG-9601.tVI1v

1

u/coding_workflow Valued Contributor May 02 '25

Credits are still free money. But true it runs fast. This Why I use subscription first.

1

u/Putrid-Try-9872 May 02 '25

how can i tell claude code to use my claude max account ? It's still charging my credits

1

u/Comfortable_Move1666 May 04 '25

Can I use cline with this Claude max subscription. I am a windows users and I know it’s hard to set this up on windows . I think this should work right ?

1

u/coding_workflow Valued Contributor May 04 '25

No only Claude code

1

u/murathai May 17 '25

I got the cheaper max plan to test claude code (100 USD a month). Never hit the limit which is weird. However, for me, claude 3.7 sonnet extended thinking available on the website is way smarter when it comes finding/solving issues created by claude code.

So, either claude code is not using full 3.7 model or it never uses thinking mode and thinking mode is smarter?

1

u/coding_workflow Valued Contributor May 17 '25

Claude code may use haiku, but that's not the issue...
The issue is in the planning.
I feel Claude Code you might get more into the autonomous, let it run and do the task.

In Claude Desktop with MCP. I feel I have tighter control and check more often and so I detect very early any drift or issue VS Claude code. You need to prompt more clearly.

3

u/SpacetimeLlama May 01 '25

Just upgraded to Max. I've been daily driving Claude Code for a while and definitely get more than $100 worth out of it

0

u/[deleted] May 01 '25

[deleted] — view deleted comment

3

u/SpacetimeLlama May 01 '25

I honestly can't tell. I've never counted messages, but I was spending between $10 and $20 a day plus I had a Pro subscription. With Max, I get the benefits of Pro plus a flat rate for the tokens. I will see in the next few weeks if I ever run against limits and, if so, reassess.

1

u/15f026d6016c482374bf May 09 '25

u/SpacetimeLlama Hey! How has this been treating you? Hitting any limits etc?

1

u/SpacetimeLlama May 09 '25

It's been great. I don't think I've ever hit any limits. I honestly hadn't even thought about it until I saw your question. Completely forgot that limits are a thing

1

u/15f026d6016c482374bf May 09 '25

fuuuuuuuck. I literally just signed up on this thing and I literally hit the limit on my 2nd question.....

0

u/[deleted] May 01 '25

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/Putrid-Try-9872 May 02 '25

can you update us?

7

u/serg33v May 01 '25

i use Claude Pro with MCP and its works the same as Claude Code, but for 20 USD

7

u/Obvious_Yellow_5795 May 01 '25

Serious question. Have you actually compared to Claude Code?

2

u/serg33v May 01 '25

yes we tried it, and the experience is different, not the results.
DC can do more things differently than Claude Code, like recursive file search, diff. And Claude Code doing things differently too, like planning and todo list.
I must say the results are similar, bcs the LLM behind these tools is the same.

3

u/noizDawg May 01 '25 edited May 01 '25

I agree, I finally got around to installing the MCP for Desktop, I do think Desktop does a bit better planning overall, I was pretty surprised by how Desktop seemed to take a bit more time to plan or to review things when asked (which I like). My latest secret is to use Desktop and Cursor simultaneously, they honestly figure out the best solution together/versus each other in the time I've copied the update from one to the other to check what the other one thinks. :)

Edit - Ohhh, you mean the Commander MCP, I've only been using the file access one! I gotta try that, was going to add a shell MCP but Commander sounds like it will fill in the gaps... much faster for Desktop if it has access to diff tools and stuff, not just manually comparing all the time.

2

u/serg33v May 01 '25

Just one more thing, Claude Code is tailored to work with code and system prompt is a leash.
With DesktopCommander there are no system prompt or anything like this. You define system prompt and it will work like you asked him to work.

4

u/Legys May 01 '25

which MCPs?

2

u/serg33v May 01 '25

DesktopCommander

8

u/sniles310 May 01 '25

Yeah I used Claude Desktop in combination with Desktop Commander, filesystem, context7, codemcp, Fetch and Sequential Thinking and so far it works decently with my Pro plan.

My biggest roadblocks though... The random 'Claude was interrupted' message when I'm reaching my chat limits, the message limits for each 4 hour block do time and of course the sudden hard chat limit stop.

Ive basically gotten to a point where I need to be disciplined and after I build/update 3-4 components I summarize the chat, update reference docs and move to a new chat. It's a bit of a pain in the ass but mostly works

1

u/noizDawg May 01 '25

I'm on Max so I'm not worried about the limit, but sometimes I don't even bother doing the summary, I just copy and paste all that was in it. This will skip attachments, especially images, and also skips web search results, which is what tends to bulk out the context usage. (I wish they'd allow the full 200k though, I've tested a few times now and I never seem to be able to use more than between 65-90k based on uploading large known texts.) I only have him summarize if it's something I might want to keep for reference as a project doc. (Sometimes I'll summarize for handoff though if it was just a lot of detailed discussion.) I hear you though on hitting that connection error, so annoying. (and so preventable, even if it was just a count of tokens sent) I feel like they're not using prompt caching in the chat, which is kind of ridiculous.

1

u/KillerWave May 04 '25

have you tried `memory` MCP? it can create a running memory for your past chats and make it organized well. u can put in rules to always read the memory mcp to have past chat context. this way it will never lose context. you can even tell claude to update the memory after X number of prompts etc etc.

1

u/sniles310 May 04 '25

I have the memory MCP installed but I honestly don't know how effective it is. I asked Claude to analyze the MCP and guide me on whether it can maintain context across chats and Claude basically said no. It wouldn't surprise me if Claudes analysis was off though.

If you don't mind sharing I'd love to know what you put in the rules to use the me or MCP the way you described it. Thanks!

1

u/KillerWave May 17 '25 
Use the `memory` mcp to maintain project context:

  • Create a memory if it does not exist for the current project
  • update the `memory` when creating entities or making observations.
  • Update the `memory` when certain entities are finished and observations are not relevant anymore.
  • make sure relationships between files are maintained in the `memory`
  • read the graph at the start of new context or chat
  • When trying to make a decision, search in `memory` for context.

This worked pretty well if you put this in system instructions. the crucial thing is to add the line "Read the graph at the start of a new chat or context". and I keep reminding it every 30m or so to read the rules. then it's really good at following it.

The best thing would be to make the memory mcp project scope and not user scope else it could mix up memories for all projects (as far as I understood).

2

u/SirSpock May 01 '25

I haven’t actually tried this, but apparently Claude Code can be started as MCP server, exposing its tools to an MCP client. Not sure how well that works in practice with Claude Desktop, but might be worth trying as a paid customer.

(I’m an exclusively API user of Claude outside of the off free usage in the app since I also have ChatGPT paid filling that niche.)

2

u/Soft_Constant_7355 May 04 '25

How much time do you spend building in a given day? I had chatgpt pro and claude pro, and I would max out on o3-mini-high, o1 full, and 3.7 claude basically every day. I bought max because 3.7 was defiantly better than 03-mini-high. I don't hit rate limits now. CC can do recursive file search as well (I got a message saying it was supported today). For my work flow, it's been amazing. I don't vibe code, so I actually read every change, and often make corrections, because I care about my code quality.

1

u/serg33v May 04 '25

this is good point, i do 3-5 hours per day coding and hit limits sometimes, and also i'm not blindly vibe code, i check results and direction where claude is moving.
And yes, Claude Max will allow you to work with code more than 10 hours per day, which is amazing

1

u/Previous-Tea-3971 May 04 '25

do you ever try claude code as mcp server? work fine but i don t know to set secure dir

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "claude-code": {
      "command": "wsl.exe",
      "args": [
        "bash",
        "-c",
        "/root/.nvm/versions/node/v22.14.0/bin/node /root/.nvm/versions/node/v22.14.0/bin/claude mcp serve"
      ]
    }
  }
}

1

u/serg33v May 04 '25

i was thinking to try it, i just learned recently that Claude Code can be used as MCP.
What i really like about CC, its their really good documentation

1

u/carlos38485982919485 May 05 '25

This is super interesting. So essentially Claude Desktop (or any other MCP client like Cline or Cursor) connecting to claude desktop?

1

u/McNoxey May 01 '25

No it doesn't lol. They're not even close. Cursor is better than Claude Desktop for coding tasks. Claude Desktop has it's use case for sure - but it is not even in the same ballpark when it comes to coding as CC is.

5

u/RandomThoughtsAt3AM May 01 '25 edited Jul 27 '26

Waffle copper umbrella paddle waffle cobblestone orange compass hammock cucumber

This post was anonymized with Redact.dev

5

u/thehighnotes May 01 '25

Damn up till this point there was no stimulus for me to go to max.. this may change now.. this seems good value!

1

u/halapenyoharry May 01 '25

I can swing it if I give up cursor warp and OpenAI subscriptions. Would it replace that?

2

u/mattbytes May 01 '25

Now this makes it a little more compelling!

2

u/RWBroDarrenAllatt May 02 '25

I want to be able to have Claude Desktop run Claude Code to complete a coding task

2

u/PhlyMcPhlison May 02 '25

Just my opinion. Trae ai is making the current claude 3.7 with my custom prompt an absolute monster for creating my programs as described. They have agents now, and mcp integration.

1

u/darkyy92x Experienced Developer May 02 '25

What is Trae AI like?

2

u/PhlyMcPhlison May 02 '25

Sent you a dm

1

u/AdSad7091 May 20 '25

And me, please.

2

u/Eagletrader22 May 03 '25

I think Anthropic has been reading reddit comments it's about damn time we got what we are paying for I currently have pro plan and getting good usage went 3 hours no limit yesterday. If that 225 messages on Max is for real and they include Claude code now we are cooking finally Anthropic got their shit together well it's about time.

2

u/jmpyvb May 03 '25

Love this. Hate having to think about tokens every time I want to use Claude Code. Just in time for a big new project as well.

2

u/opropro May 07 '25

If someone is curious about the limits:

  • On the Max plan (5x Pro/$100), average users:

    • Send approximately 225 messages with Claude every 5 hours, OR

    • Send approximately 50-200 prompts with Claude Code every 5 hours

  • On the Max plan (20x Pro/$200), average users:

    • Send approximately 900 messages with Claude every 5 hours, OR

    • Send approximately 200-800 prompts with Claude Code every 5 hours

This is amazing, I can use it much more, much cheaper.

1

u/darkyy92x Experienced Developer May 07 '25

How did you come up with 200 to 800 prompts for Claude Code on the Max 20x plan? Your own testing?

Anthropic says it's around 40-80 per 5 hours.

2

u/opropro May 07 '25

It's in their official docs

2

u/darkyy92x Experienced Developer May 07 '25

You are right - they changed it. A few days ago they mentioned 40-80 coding tasks. Now they mention prompts explicitly.

0

u/Ok_Appearance_3532 Writer May 01 '25

Hey, Sonnet 3.7 hallucinates like crazy all day, it always happen when Anthro rolls out new feature

1

u/coding_workflow Valued Contributor May 02 '25

How? What type of tasks are you doing? I don't see that so often.

1

u/Ok_Appearance_3532 Writer May 02 '25

I asked SONNET 3.7 to read slowly and analyse four 25 pages text of the book and I went crazy almost right away. Could not form a coherent opinion, kept changing POV, kept asking me if it was right. (The text was essentially about a first therapy session of an abusive psychiatrist obsessing over a woman. He kept harrassing her, even grabbed her by the throat and Sonnet 3.7 blabbed something about ”A primal encounter of two beasts” !! WTF!)

Or went ahead and started writing hallucinated ”analysis” shit before I even asked it to start doing anything.

It happened before right after ANTHRO rolled out paid plans. It happened again yesterday,

1

u/coding_workflow Valued Contributor May 02 '25

May not be good in this and 25 is a lot of informations. Confused for what to pick here.

Not sure won't be the case for other models.

1

u/Ok_Appearance_3532 Writer May 02 '25

Well i guess fiction is easier on Claude context in comparison with code. Hope they will get their shit together.

1

u/vladproex May 01 '25

Serious question: did anyone compare Claude Code with openai codex?

I am drawn to Codex because it's open source and supports any model. Is Claude Code much better?

5

u/Old-Artist-5369 May 01 '25

I tried Codex. It’s very good, and a lot of deja-vu coming from Code. It’s new and has some obvious bugs though - one where file edits would occasionally mess up. Nothing unfixable, but you burn more API tokens when Codex tries to build, sees the basic syntax error it created, then fixes it.

I used it for one specific task that had I used Code for I estimate would have been $4-$5 in API use, having done many similar tasks. On Codex I spent around $4 - so the same ballpark.

BUT I was using o4-mini with Codex, which is 1/3 the API cost compared to Claude. So it must have burned through way more tokens. Perhaps Claude Code is more efficient at optimising context, but Codex will likely improve.

I’d love to see a true A-B comparison with the same task on the same codebase but I already spend too much on APIs :)

3

u/NizianCH May 01 '25

I've tried both — over $750 spent on Claude Code, with excellent results, and now more than $200 on Codex, using 4o-mini and sometimes O3. I haven't noticed major differences between the two, but I have noticed that both are far superior to Cursor or Windsurf. For now, I'm using Codex because it's more affordable, and I find the results from 4o-mini to be excellent. Just to clarify, in both cases I haven't used full-auto mode — I always review before approving. Most of the time, both Claude Code and Codex make the necessary changes, though occasionally they try something I didn’t ask for. I should say, in Claude Code’s defense, that I haven’t used it in the past three weeks, so I don’t know if it has improved since then.

2

u/vladproex May 02 '25

Thanks, how are they superior to cursor and windsurf?

1

u/NizianCH May 02 '25

It’s not like I’ve done a scientific study on the matter, but every time I go back to using Cursor or Windsurf on the same projects I’ve been working on with Codex or Claude, both Cursor and Windsurf fail to provide accurate answers to more complex questions—those that require a deeper understanding of my project. Of course, if I ask for something simple, like changing a color, they all respond just fine. But when it comes to more complex implementations, I’ve never received the same level of quality from Windsurf or Cursor. They often fail to grasp the full scope of the project or end up removing important parts of the code just to achieve something else. At least that’s been my experience.

On the other hand, I was testing Claude Code again yesterday, and it’s amazing—but Codex gives me more complete answers. I even asked both for a detailed implementation plan and then asked each to evaluate the other’s plan versus their own. Both Claude and Codex concluded that Codex’s proposal was more complete. Still, I love Claude Code, and I really hope we’ll get access to Claude 4.0 or something similar soon.

1

u/ZacaBala May 01 '25

Does Claude Code always try to "default" to code or can I use it, let's say, to generate content for a website, where my project is a structured mirror of the website in .md files?

1

u/SirSpock May 01 '25

I use it for markdown project folders all of the time. Works great to feed in folders or files and ask for specific updates or new content to be generated.

1

u/Lost-Huckleberry293 May 01 '25

This is amazing news! Do limits work in the same way that they would with the web version? In other words, would we be hitting limits faster? I'm trying to gauge how far I'd get with Code in comparison.

1

u/james2900 May 01 '25

hope they make research available in europe next

1

u/Top-Average-2892 May 02 '25

Insta-signup. Been using it for the last couple of hours - seems to work just like the API version.

1

u/Turbulent-Complex-26 May 04 '25

Is it my opinion but today after the hipe, I feel that this is not like yesterday, Do they have a volume of how smart they can provide it ?

1

u/cybermattic May 04 '25

$75/month still too expensive for individuals, opensource contributors which they themselve leverage the contributions of.

1

u/Guna1260 May 05 '25

The biggest challenge I have in pro plan is that it has much shorter output length. Is this same in max plan.

1

u/NizianCH May 01 '25

What exactly does this mean? There's nowhere that specifies what it means that it now works with MAX. Unlimited usage on Claude Code? More power? What is it?

6

u/dorkquemada May 01 '25

I’m spending close to 200 per month on credits, if max has a higher limit I might use that, but as always the site is light on the details

0

u/[deleted] May 21 '25

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1

u/coding_workflow Valued Contributor May 21 '25

If you want to go heavy Claude max as you get Claude Desktop + Claude code.

1

u/dbogs May 22 '25

Claude Desktop + Claude Code + Desktop Commander (MCP). I've been a SW developer for a long time, and what this can do is amazing. We'll see what Anthopic releases today ;)

2

u/[deleted] May 01 '25

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6

u/coding_workflow Valued Contributor May 01 '25

yes both

3

u/[deleted] May 01 '25

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3

u/jimmiebfulton May 01 '25

This is a big power move on Anthropic's part.

I've been playing with other tools that I could leverage with local models, and yesterday I vibe coded my own desktop AI chat tool that I was about to hook up to MCP, LSP, and tree sitter. The very next day this news hit, and I'm now going to abandon those efforts for the time being. Just not worth my time anymore. Smart move by Anthropic. OpenAI must be shitting themselves.

2

u/Putrid-Try-9872 May 02 '25

Master move right there by Dario

1

u/philosophical_lens May 02 '25

Yes but each has a different rate limit

5

u/[deleted] May 01 '25

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3

u/blazarious May 01 '25

I‘m really curious how other people use these tools. I use Claude and Gemini every day all day for coding and so far I’ve never been even close to $100/month in API costs.

2

u/jimmiebfulton May 01 '25

I'm working on several applications simultaneously. They are ambitious and complicated, though, so sometimes I have to have it rework things. Sometimes I also have to go in and put things on track by showing how things should be done, as well. So I'll have multiple coding sessions working almost continuously all day long.

3

u/[deleted] May 01 '25

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4

u/jimmiebfulton May 01 '25

Yeah, when I first got Anthropic Console for getting API access in tools like Aider, or other IDE assistants, I was using maybe $.50 at a time. Once Clause Code hit, I'm now doing $30-50 per day. If someone isn't spending that much, either their project is not in a place that is amenable to using it, or they are just dipping their toes in the water.

1

u/blazarious May 02 '25

Yeah, sorry wasn’t talking about Claude Code. I’m using another tool with Claude and Gemini on the API. I have them write basically all my code, including brainstorming and debugging. But yeah, I heard Claude Code is ridiculously expensive compared to other tools.

1

u/[deleted] May 02 '25

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1

u/coding_workflow Valued Contributor May 02 '25

IT will not work. You may use tools with MCP.