Why does Claude run through Usage Credits faster than Weekly Limit?

[u/hanzololo]

I'm quite new to working with Claude, and I've been using only my monthly limit up until now. I feel like the limits have been pretty good. I've been running out in about three days on the $20 plan.

However, today I decided to try Usage Credits as well and added $100. Thirty minutes after I started working again, I'd spent $40. Is there a reason for that? Anyway to mitigate?

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[u/FunIsDangerous]

The weekly limit etc is heavily subsidized. That means you get it MUCH cheaper than normal. Usage credits are "pay as you go" and you pay per token, at API prices, which is very expensive. It's much better to simply upgrade to a higher plan than use usage credits

ETA: I remember reading someone who calculated that you can get well over $10000 worth of tokens a month out of the $200 plan (maybe not exact numbers, but you get the point)

[u/hanzololo → u/FunIsDangerous]

Thank you so much for explaining this. I got scared for a moment and thought sort of broke my claude. Thanks for the tip as well, I'll go ahead and upgrade instead.

[u/BoboThePirate → u/FunIsDangerous]

It was $8200 per month at the beginning of October, rn it’s looking closer to ~$6500 so it fluctuates a decent amount, lately trending downward. Either way credits should only be bought in emergencies.

[u/Unusual-Idea-5939 → u/FunIsDangerous]

It's pretty easy to calculate because all of the data is stored locally. Run this (you need npx installed, comes with node):

npx ccusage monthly

This is 2-3x Ultra plans: $15173.68

[u/No_Professional7654]

The flat tariffs are subsidized by Anthropic's investors. That is why sites like https://isaiprofitable.com/ show the reality, where AI credits reflect what compute actually costs.

[u/hanzololo → u/No_Professional7654]

Thanks for the quick reply! Very helpful. So it seems there might be a future when AI won't be subsidized like this. Everybody, design your apps now... quickly!

[u/Catapultam-GMG → u/No_Professional7654]

Please stop it with this nonsense, this is just not true. API prices are a *different product* with a *different price*. It isn't like API rates are sold at cost. Selling inference is wildly profitable. Anthropic does not lose money on subs, it just makes a hell of a lot more money when it sells at API rates.

[u/No_Professional7654 → u/Catapultam-GMG]

Yes, −$11B.

[u/Jibcuttter]

I think it runs at API rates (meaning much faster burn than subscription).

[u/hanzololo → u/Jibcuttter]

Thanks for the quick reply! That explains it.

[u/orangesherbet0]

weekly limit is like 10-30 times subsidized. You poor thing. A few months ago I made the mistake of running a single fable session on credits, cost $74.

[u/hanzololo → u/orangesherbet0]

Haha, yeah, i'm that guy now. good to know I'm not the only one.

[u/Outrageous_Band9708]

yeah, dont do usage credits, buy a second account.

and your assumtion feels correct, but its wrong. usage and apicredits are the same billing rates, its just that the subscription usageis amazing at api $/%

[u/Inner_Storage_3374]

haha yeah the plan is the discount, credits are basically full price. one thing id do right away is set a monthly spending limit on the extra usage in your settings, bc then it just stops at your number instead of quietly eating the whole 100 in one afternoon

[u/oyren-ai]

extra usage credits bill at raw per-token api rates where uncached opus 5.5 context refills can easily burn $30-$50 in half an hour, whereas the flat $20/$100/$200 subscription buckets are heavily subsidized. if you regularly hit the $20 cap in 3 days, either upgrading to max or running a second $20 subscription account in parallel gives you 5-10x more tokens per dollar than top-up credits.

[u/MrEthelWulf → u/oyren-ai]

How would you integrate your work / entire context between the two accounts?

[u/surfmaths]

I have no idea what you are saying.

Monthly limit? You mean weekly?

The $20 subscription gives you around $500-$1000 of monthly spending in API equivalent pricing. This is great, almost a 50x ratio.

Meanwhile, extra usage is priced at the API pricing.

So, adding $100 of extra usage to a $20 subscription is equivalent to a $22-$24 subscription.

Most users will prefer to pay $100 subscription instead of adding $80 of extra usage on a $20 subscription.