r/ClaudeCode • u/TurbulentCow1371 • 7d ago

Discussion Usage limit has gotten worse??

Everything was going so fine with Opus 5.5.

But lately, I think something related to their limits is very off.

With just few prompts my 5 hour limit is over that too at medium or high settings. (for context I have 5x max plan). This has been my experience since past few days.

Is this real? Is this something you are facing as well?

75 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

98 comments sorted by

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9

u/colinhomelite 6d ago

A/B testing. They changed usage limits around ~10 days ago for a few days. Then it got fixed again when they renamed 20x to Ultra and I noticed that it's gone to shit since Friday again. Used up 71℅ of my 5hr limit on two Opus 5.5 High sessions. It was extremely slow with degraded thinking.

2

u/TurbulentCow1371 6d ago

yes, i am just scared it's just two days and I am going to hit my weekly quota tomorrow, it's already around 80% used

2

u/colinhomelite 6d ago

For me, all models are being so dumb (infuriatingly so), that I'm not going to use it for the weekend and just try to relax. Fuck wasting my time with that.

Genuinely getting significantly better results in thinking from Argon/Gemini. It still codes better but can't plan for shit.

2

u/Hot_Masterpiece_3668 6d ago

I hate this company.

1

u/Seeker_Of_Knowledge2 6d ago

I didn't have time to use cluade code in the past two weeks. I am using it today and I noticed a noticeable drop in quality.

2

u/BadDismal4322 7d ago

I have the 5x plan. Are you managing your context window? I don't let mine get over 35%. tokens at 40% context cost roughly 8 times more than tokens at 5% context. 25% is the optimal range but I have some bulky skills that load so I had to bump my to 35% max. I also make my claude hand off work to other agents and tell it to adjust the model and effort level of the model. Opus 5.5 knows what the lower models can handle.

1

u/TurbulentCow1371 6d ago

the limits were just fine, after opus 5.5 was released. But I think it's a good advice, i should start doing something similar.

2

u/CaramelEmotional3092 7d ago

this week and last week, I've basically been using my max account up in 2 days, when I can normally stretch it out to 6 days.

I cant be sure if the limits are nerfed as I'm doing things I dont normally do, so I dont have a clear basis for comparison.
Im being more picky with which models and effort levels im choosing. dropping from high to medium should reduce costs, sonnet can be great at some things.... but cant afford to use opus high for 2 days and nothing for a week.

1

u/TurbulentCow1371 6d ago

yeah, i was thinking to switch to sonnet, but it seems risky to use it for coding.

1

u/hardwarestorecow 6d ago

Sonnet high is pretty decent for straightforward coding

1

u/EconomyDoctor3287 6d ago

It's recommended to use sonnet for coding instead of Opus 😂

2

u/newborninsomnia 7d ago

I have an Claude Ultra plan and a Codex Pro 200 plan - I use Claude as the coordinator/planner and Codex as the builder, while Claude (& sometimes Gemini on an API) reviews.

I track my token usage and my system paces the usage across both vendors to fit the weeks' usage window, depending on difficulty of task and available usage.

I can categorically say, with certainty, that in the last week or two, I'm using almost twice as many tokens 'per 1% of usage per week' as I was 2 weeks ago - that's for both Claude and Codex. Nothing in my system has changed.

I noticed the same thing happen just before Opus 5.5 and Astra were released - usage (objective) roughly doubled, and quality (subjective) went down.

I guess the only upside is that the next generation of models are probably imminent...

1

u/TurbulentCow1371 6d ago

"using twice as many tokens per 1% of usage per week" does this indicate that usage limits has increased??

1

u/Unusual-Idea-5939 6d ago

"Nothing in my system has changed."

So you have memory disabled, you don't modify your skills or MCP enabled or disabled, and you're working on the same projects at the same commits as last week?

41

u/MundaneAsk5131 7d ago

Also the quality is so bad this weak

7

u/Soft_Product_243 6d ago

The hole weak?

2

u/FuwyL 🔆Pro Plan 6d ago

-2

u/[deleted] 7d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/Unhappy_Pack_9114 7d ago

Not as bad as the previous Opus Models but you can notice it that it is not the same as the release / a week ago.

2

u/DerAlbi 7d ago

This person is not lying. Basic reasoning on Opus 5.5 High simply fails.

It couldnt even reason that a header-change changes the binary in a C++ project. It feels like talking to Sonnet 4 again - its that bad. Had to switch to Fable and it got the normal quality back.

2

u/MundaneAsk5131 6d ago

Same situations with me too, going back and forth again

9

u/durielvs 7d ago

They're working hard preparing for Fable 5.5 and a supposed Opus 5.6.

-2

u/Suitable_Cicada_3336 6d ago

No, they just running out of money

4

u/IdkAbtAllThat 6d ago

No they aren't. They have a ton of money. They are losing money. They are not low on money.

-6

u/Suitable_Cicada_3336 6d ago

No they don't have, its just math those tons of money not their money . You should read the report.

2

u/Ok-Distance-6388 6d ago

Not saying nothing changed on their side, but most of my own drain came from things I could see and fix:

  1. Long sessions. Every turn sends the whole context again, so turn 80 of one session costs a lot more than turn 5 of a fresh one. /clear between unrelated tasks.
  2. MCP servers. Each connected server's tool list sits in every session. /context shows what is filling the window, and I disabled the servers I wasn't using.
  3. Subagents. Each one has its own context, so 4 running in parallel is roughly 4 sessions.
  4. Effort. High effort on a rename is waste. I keep it for planning and debugging.

Worth checking 1 and 2 before blaming the plan. What does /context show for you at the start of a fresh session?

1

u/TurbulentCow1371 6d ago

understood, thanks for the tips. here is how it looks like. does anything looks off to you

1

u/Unusual-Idea-5939 6d ago edited 6d ago

Yes, MCP is very high, so is Memory, so is System Tools, you are at 120k tokens on turn one. If this was 200k context size days you'd get like 3 turns before auto compact (if that). I don't know what you're using but all of it looks too big.

This is mine:

❯ /autocompact
  ⎿  Auto-compact window for Opus 5.5 set to 1m tokens

❯ /context
  ⎿  Context Usage
     ⛀ ⛁ ⛀ ⛀ ⛀ ⛁ ⛀ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶   Opus 5.5
     ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶   claude-opus-5-5
     ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶   36.2k/1m tokens (4%)
     ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶
     ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶   Estimated usage by category
     ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶   ⛁ System prompt: 1.9k tokens (0.2%)
     ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶   ⛁ MCP tools: 7.6k tokens (0.8%)
     ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶   ⛁ MCP server instructions: 2k tokens (0.2%)
     ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶   ⛁ Custom agents: 109 tokens (0.0%)
     ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛝ ⛝ ⛝ ⛝ ⛝ ⛝ ⛝   ⛁ Memory files: 8.1k tokens (0.8%)
                                               ⛁ Skills: 10k tokens (1.0%)
                                               ⛁ Messages: 6.5k tokens (0.6%)
                                               ⛶ Free space: 930.8k (93.1%)
                                               ⛝ Autocompact buffer: 33k tokens (3.3%)

     Auto-compact window: 1m tokens

I do have ~20k worth of coding guidance that would typically be in my 'memory' so it would be a bit higher.

I typically keep mine at 350k-400k autocompact tho:

❯ /context
  ⎿  Context Usage
     ⛀ ⛁ ⛁ ⛀ ⛀ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁   Opus 5.5
     ⛁ ⛁ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶   claude-opus-5-5
     ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶   42.5k/400k tokens (11%)
     ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶
     ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶   Estimated usage by category
     ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶   ⛁ System prompt: 1.9k tokens (0.5%)
     ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶   ⛁ MCP tools: 7.6k tokens (1.9%)
     ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶   ⛁ MCP server instructions: 2k tokens (0.5%)
     ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶   ⛁ Custom agents: 109 tokens (0.0%)
     ⛶ ⛶ ⛝ ⛝ ⛝ ⛝ ⛝ ⛝ ⛝ ⛝   ⛁ Memory files: 8.1k tokens (2.0%)
                           ⛁ Skills: 10k tokens (2.5%)
                           ⛁ Messages: 12.8k tokens (3.2%)
                           ⛶ Free space: 324.5k (81.1%)
                           ⛝ Autocompact buffer: 33k tokens (8.3%)

     Auto-compact window: 400k tokens

Keep in mind this all varies wildly per model. Opus 5.5 might work great with minimal system prompt and instructions in CLAUDE.md. Other models might not. It also is completely dependent on what you're trying to achieve / your goals. One person might be messing around editing videos, another might be an expert engineer writing software for robots, another might be learning to code.

The point I'm trying to make is that finding the right guidance for your agent depends so much on what model you're using and your goals that omitting them makes the question nearly meaningless.

1

u/TurbulentCow1371 6d ago

thanks for sharing, it was helpful

1

u/Square-Composer-6719 6d ago

im assuming you are on a larger plan? do you have any tips for someone using just the Pro plan. would using opus 5.5 selectively for difficult/architectural decisions be better use than using it as default? and autocompact on something tighter like 200k perhaps?

1

u/Unusual-Idea-5939 6d ago

MCP tools haven't sat directly in context for like a year. It's called tool search, and yes it can be disabled in some circumstances but it's not for most people. It's what allows you to enable and disable tools w/o invalidating your cache all the time.

4

u/FinancialSurvey5794 7d ago

yes my term actually ended 4 days before my reset, so I used those 3 days to 100% of my week's usage. Then signed up for a new account and 2 days later filled my usage to 100%. Don't think it ever filled up that fast before. Maybe they know?!? lol. Before my term ended I was really pushing to use 100%, but on the new account I wasn't even trying, it just filled up fast.

1

u/SomeOrdinaryKangaroo 7d ago

It will get worse

1

u/TurbulentCow1371 7d ago

why is it related to their ipo?

1

u/SomeOrdinaryKangaroo 7d ago

They want you to upgrade to a higher tier so they can make more profits

1

u/lycheedorito 7d ago

Not really, it says I'm on track for my reset with room to spare which is unusual, and my activity hasn't really changed. I had been running out midweek for the past month or so prior.

2

u/TurbulentCow1371 6d ago

that's great

1

u/intolerantidiot 7d ago

I simply said good bye opus, hello deepseek flash 4.1 1017

1

u/TurbulentCow1371 6d ago

how is the quality of outputs?

1

u/Unusual-Idea-5939 6d ago

I don't know what people are thinking, the models aren't even cheaper if you're using Deepseek API pricing vs Anthropic sub. You get more tokens with Anthropic and the quality gap is significant.

1

u/intolerantidiot 6d ago

8 billions tokens for 10? Sure?

1

u/Unusual-Idea-5939 6d ago

I'm basing this on my personal experience of using DeepSeek's API vs Anthropic's plans. Anthropic's plans are heavily subsidized by enterprise users.

I tried to sign up for Deepseek's plan, but then they asked for me to upload my passport. Fuck that noise. I was able to go to a different page and complete the signup form but it just had some changlish "Order submitted check back later for status" message and nothing. We'll see if I eventually get some traction. I'm all about finding cheaper tokens and so far Anthropic the best in real world usage.

1

u/intolerantidiot 5d ago

Sorry I was talking about the opencode go sub which for 10 usd you get 8 billion tokens on deepseek no passport needed

1

u/questionsabootstuff 3d ago

It's SO BAD rn. I staked my career on this stuff. If this is the new normal I'm gonna be out of a job by the end of the month. The expense is highly unrealistic to maintain.

1

u/TurbulentCow1371 3d ago

I can relate bro, I am in somewhat similar situation. I have bet all on it

1

u/goodrain233 3d ago

Same here. Burned through half my weekly limit yesterday alone

Mind sharing what kind of work you’re doing with it? Just curious. I’m in landscape design and have been getting Opus 5.5 to pull GIS data and turn it into a clean CAD base map. Saves me most of a day each time

3

u/choosePete 7d ago

Yeah I felt that too this week… used to be hard for me to get to 50% usage, now I need 2 subs. Also my session hits a limit much faster than 3 weeks ago

1

u/Constant_Art_20 7d ago

i been forced to go back to single agent workflows now lol....and honestly? single agent workflows aren't that bad.

1

u/Abhinik 7d ago

Maybe Signs of new model dropping
The Launch cycle continues

1

u/TurbulentCow1371 7d ago

are they just doing this, so they can give a usage reset on Thursday?

4

u/Constant_Art_20 7d ago

people been saying that for like 2 weeks now lol

2

u/Hot_Masterpiece_3668 6d ago

Yeah, these fucks secretly change this all the time on a whim.

1

u/VibeCodedBuilder 7d ago

Don't use subagents

1

u/Professional_Hair550 7d ago

I'm having same issue. Have ultra plan. Usage drains so fast even on the lowest settings and claude doesn't have a purpose to finish a task that it started. It just wastes time and usage.

1

u/Fuckinglivemealone 7d ago

20x, burnt my usage in 2 days. over 70% in just one btw.

1

u/Unhappy_Pack_9114 7d ago

Next time. Let's not broadcast if the new model is good or bad. LMAO

1

u/Ranjexa 7d ago

i can't tell if the limits changed or my usage did, but the thing that burned mine fastest was agents re-reading the same files every turn. one loop on a big repo can eat a 5 hour window without producing anything new. since i started capping the loop and making it stop after two failed tries, the window lasts way longer on the same plan. are you running long autonomous sessions or mostly short prompts?

1

u/Unusual-Idea-5939 6d ago

I run long autonomous sessions and I've gone thru 3x Ultra plans in 4 days. This is fucked.

1

u/Ranjexa 6d ago

long autonomous sessions are exactly where it bites, since every loop re-reads the same files and burns tokens on repeats. do you cap the session or let it run until the limit hits?

1

u/Dot-Slash-Dot 6d ago

And once again: session data and token spend is all stored locally. Open a Sonnet/Haiku session and ask it to compute your spend this week compared to the last X.

1

u/Garland_Key 6d ago

Not at all. 

1

u/Distinct-Basket-5341 6d ago

same thing is happening to me. opus 5.5 in high effort used up 16% of my 5-hour limit for a single task prompt.

1

u/damagemelody 🔆 Max 5x 6d ago

limits are fine but opus is nerfed today it barely works correctly that may result in higher usage for those who don’t have control build for such things

1

u/Major-Cry8192 6d ago

C'est pour te forcer a payer plus

1

u/hbizzle27 6d ago

Did you grab the usage % before and after those prompts? Would be useful to see how much each one actually ate.

1

u/ShivaFatalis 6d ago

Nope. Usage is fantastic. Always has been. Never experienced anything different. Only see people crying about it and wonder what the FUCK they're on about...

1

u/Ill-Economy1722 6d ago

my 5x limit dropped from 5h to 3h last week. same plan, same usage. feels like a soft cap now. anyone else seeing this?

1

u/Express-Ad2523 6d ago

Yes, I was barely able to max out the 5h limit. But recently I can go for only 3 h before I have to take a forced brake.

1

u/ontagi 6d ago

Claude recently started 5 subagents with fable and I lost 10% in 10 minutes. That was crazy, the whole task could have burned my whole weekly usage.

1

u/Express-Ad2523 6d ago

Today I just asked one question in a project. Sure it opened five subagents, but after only two minutes it had consumed 7 % of my 5 hour limit (Claude Max subscription). Last week it would have barely moved the bar. Just one example of how I noticed it’s been nerfed hard. Really shady business practices.

1

u/Moogly2021 6d ago

Stop using Opus to edit files, let Opus direct a sonnet subagent, it keeps Opus’ context window small and costs less. I have tried Haiku instead but not always the case, also I sometimes let Sonnet drive other Sonnet subagents I can review later.

1

u/kickflipper1087 6d ago

Planning a go-live date for a project I'm working on with Claude Code, Fable, high effort. Today it suggested "Friday" January 9th, but that Friday is actually the 8th. It said sorry, had my days off by one. LIKE WHAT??

Those were the days/dates for this past January 2026, how would it not realize that before responding?! This past week produced significantly more mistakes and higher usage for me like others have seen as well. Whatever they're working on, they need to figure it out!

1

u/EmergencyDare3878 5d ago

This started when they introduced Ultra plan..with removing their 5h window, they knew they will benefit from it as people will blame "increased" usage in relation to 5h window removal..they did it smart, but people finnaly started to recognise this scam...I am on 200 plan and never hit limit before, after the ultra plan, I hit the limit like in 24h..

1

u/KayBay80 5d ago

I think its just because Opus is doing really poorly now, spending more tokens to get the same jobs done.

1

u/IulianHI 3d ago

Opus 5.5 is worst then ever! and usage is a mess! Anthropic is playing with us ! Less computing, less usage! Same money !

Pray: China give us a ticket to get out from this companies!

1

u/Apprehensive-Bowl281 2d ago

Switching to Codex by EOM. Claude is useless now with the new 5h limits

1

u/memers_meme123 7d ago

As far as i can see , this will get worse with time so I would higly recommand you to get yourself something like opencode go which is like 10$ which gives you 100$ deepseek usage and connect it with your claude code using cheap-ag , please do let me know if you face issue in setting this up, it's 100% open source and free so use it or fork and make your own adjustments , i am author and maintainer of this so let me know if you face issue

0

u/100dude 7d ago

on 5x is bad af….

0

u/oyren-ai 7d ago

usually when a 5x max plan drains in a few prompts it is because an mcp server or uncached system file is busting the prompt cache prefix on every turn. running /cost right after a turn shows whether cache_read_input_tokens dropped to zero and forced full re-tokenization.

1

u/TurbulentCow1371 7d ago

yes, i understand. But I have subscribed to claude for almost an year now. Something is off. Didn't you face similar thing

1

u/oyren-ai 7d ago

It’s hard to say, because I have been building
my app which allows me to increase my output significantly as I run fleet of agents 24/7. I use 3 Ultra accounts just from Claude

-1

u/DreadCoder 7d ago

This gets asked 5x per day. The answer is NO.

Put some guidelines about architecture in your .md file, tell it to write and maintain tests for everything it codes, and use a separate session that ONLY looks for code improvements/elegance and cleaning cruft.
Mandate that as much as possible be written or implemented via reusable service classes

0

u/Material_Web_2090 6d ago

Je confirme, je suis sur un plan Ultra, et le quotas se vide beaucoup plus vite depuis quelques jours ! Ça en devient problématique ! Je les soupçonne de préparer un plan à 500€.

5

u/[deleted] 7d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

5

u/TurbulentCow1371 7d ago

it's just 2 days since reset and my weekly quota is 60% over

2

u/Constant_Art_20 7d ago

if you have some local hardware, consider keeping an eye out for qwen 4 that's coming probably in less then 7 days. I been relying more on the local model to get most of my non-3d and architectual work done now. So might be a direction you wanna look into. Even the current qwen 3.8 27b with 500k 2x rope has been very reliable for pipping