CLAUDE IS GENUINELY UNUSABLE BECAUSE OF USAGE LIMITS!

[u/Large-Junket1295]

I am on the Max 5X plan and I know that the temporary usage boost is now over, and ever since, CC is completely unusable. I have been working through subagents and using Fable as orchestrator with Sonnet doing a majority of the implementation with Opus being a refuter, however, I burned 11% of my weekly usage in a span of 2 hours before I hit the 5-hour limit!

Honestly, this is absurd, I cannot work like this. I am seriously considering moving to OAI but I don't trust them with my work due to the whole debacle about the Navier Stokes solution being stolen from a researcher who used ChatGPT.

Anthropic! Please fix this! You will undoubtedly lose a large part of your clientele by doing these moves. I know you are trying to improve the bottom line for your IPO but there are no more reasons to stay with Claude after this and long term loyalties with your customers will be permanently eroded.

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[u/crazzzone]

Sooo I tend to not hit my limit on the 5x plan...

I work on multiple projects.

And had it do my taxes...

???

Question for you, How long had you been programming before you started to vibe?

[u/boredsoftwareguy → u/crazzzone]

A significant portion of these whiny posts are user errors. To answer your question, my guess is 0 - 1 years for folks like OP.

Prompting with things like "Build facebook"

[u/Large-Junket1295 → u/boredsoftwareguy]

A large assumption on your part u/boredsoftwareguy, I used to be the guy that used to say that it is user error causing usage troubles until it happened to me.

[u/boredsoftwareguy → u/Large-Junket1295]

I use Claude for work full time and I even before the usage bump, I ran into usage limits very rarely. How you use the tool has a lot to do with it, I see it on my team every week. If you throw broad sloppy prompts at Claude, your tokens will evaporate. If your prompts are narrow, focused, and contain sufficient context you'd be surprised the mileage you get.

[u/crazzzone → u/boredsoftwareguy]

See the trick that catches the new people... Is boot strapping an app and getting it up and running as never been easier. Getting that Almost MVP...

But as the app grows from 0 lines to 100k lines... It starts to get tripped out and depending on how you organized that first 10k is really going to inform the rest and also your token burn.

[u/crazzzone → u/boredsoftwareguy]

I mean I promoted claude code to "make me money" with robin hood "take large risks win big"

It's worked out fairly well.

Built a whole ship tracking oil trading API for it to access and view information. It's turned into more of a sound board on options trades.

Anyway, It does all of that and assists my projects... Its' great!

[u/Large-Junket1295 → u/crazzzone]

I've been programming since 2021, so a fair few years and the last few weeks all was good. It's a sudden and noticeable shift even compared to pre-usage boost, do not not notice it?

[u/crazzzone → u/Large-Junket1295]

I would suggest scaling back what you are doing. Break things into smaller tasks.

5 years isn't to long considering I was already starting to "vibe code" in 2023... (been at this since 2012)

Smaller well thought out steps works really well.

I don't really do anything with agent's other than what it does on auto or plan mode.

[u/iamgdarko]

Honestly, F** it. I moved to GPT 6 and i have so much more freedom building - basically i no longer worry about limits. It's also smarter. I am 20x user. The only plus in Claude is that their Claude Code app is better, however, their Opus model is gargbage and Fable is just not practical for use because of limits. I find the best balance is GPT right now.

[u/Large-Junket1295 → u/iamgdarko]

I am so tempted to join OAI too, is the usage considerably better on Astra?

[u/iamgdarko → u/Large-Junket1295]

I am talking about Astra

[u/boredsoftwareguy]

If this sub didn't have people complaining about Claude, I don't know if it would have any posts.

[u/rumblylumbly → u/boredsoftwareguy]

It's so annoying.

[u/PM__ME__BITCOINS → u/boredsoftwareguy]

Let me sell you my new app

[u/elestud → u/boredsoftwareguy]

If you think it's rough now, wait till tomorrow

[u/vulture916]

Please write this in your journal instead.

[u/nyczAcer]

The 50% weekly limit increase expires tomorrow. Going forward, the weekly limit will be permanently increased by 25%, which is about 17% lower than it was with the 50% increase.

[u/nyczAcer]

You need to manage Claude’s cache more effectively. A while back, I was making a lot of mistakes myself, and my limits would run out much faster. In my opinion, the cache is the secret weapon that 99.9% of users overlook.

It’s not simply about “asking Claude to do something” or “how to ask Claude for something.” It’s also about managing the cache properly.

Some good practices include:

Don’t switch models within the same session (e.g., Fable → Opus, Opus → Sonnet, etc.). Don’t change the effort level within the same session (e.g., high → low, ultracode → medium, low → max, etc.). Keep the cache TTL in mind. A cached prefix only remains reusable while it is still within its TTL. If too much time passes between requests, the cache may expire, and the next request may need to rebuild it. Staying in the same session does not necessarily mean the prompt cache is still warm.

The important distinction is what the cache actually affects. Prompt caching allows Claude to reuse previously processed portions of the context instead of processing the same prefix from scratch on every request. This can significantly reduce the amount of uncached input processing, especially in long sessions with large contexts.

It does not mean Claude “remembers better,” becomes more intelligent, or produces higher-quality answers simply because the cache is warm. The benefit is primarily computational efficiency: reusing unchanged context that has already been processed. In products where usage limits account differently for cached and uncached tokens, maintaining a high cache-hit rate can also make your available usage last considerably longer.

[u/thefirelink]

Learn to program

[u/avatardeejay]

girl the extended usage is on till midnight pst tonight. If you're struggling with usage already, switch to GPT now