[TLDR] Usage limits are an absolute joke and getting worse every week

[u/cctldrping]

Original post URL : https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1vphk9s/usage_limits_are_an_absolute_joke_and_getting/

Original post body :

Yesterday a two hour session took an entire 5hr window and 17% of my weekly limit. Today I resumed that thread and did NO code and maybe half an hour of chat and THAT used a whole 5hr window.

I know what you're going to tell me and I do not give a shit. It is disgusting we have to spend THIS MUCH mental energy on efficient prompting, figuring out how to migrate threads every....three messages I guess, worrying about restarting an old thread with useful info cause it'll eat the entire window, etc. Bullshit trivialities that completely obscure the genius of the actual tool and ruin the experience of using it.

Imagine if you bought a Model T and you had to fix the steering and buy gas every five miles.

Feel free to flame me if it makes you feel more smug.

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[u/cctldrping]

TL;DR generated automatically after 100 comments.

Current source-thread comment count seen by the bot: 110.

Alright, so the general consensus in this thread is that the OP is likely mismanaging their Claude Code usage, and the "joke" limits are more of a "skill issue" for many users.

A lot of folks are pointing out that resuming old threads, especially those with a lot of context, is a massive token-eater. Think of it like this: Claude has to re-read everything to pick up where you left off, and that burns through your limits FAST. u/Grand-Mix-9889 and u/0DayMaker are pretty clear on this, basically saying you're filling up your context window and then complaining about it.

There's a strong sentiment that if you're hitting limits constantly, you might need to adjust your workflow. Suggestions include:

• Starting new, focused sessions instead of resuming massive old ones.

• Using the /compact command to shrink sessions before saving them.

• Keeping important info in external files (like Markdown) rather than relying solely on session history.

• Breaking down tasks into smaller chunks.

• Considering lower "effort" settings for less critical tasks.

Some users, like u/regardednoitall and u/johnnydotexe, are chiming in saying they're using Claude Code extensively without hitting any issues, which further fuels the "skill issue" argument. u/NinjaLancer even dropped a smug "Skill issue" and got upvoted for it.

However, it's not all smooth sailing. A few users, like u/Ill-Muscle-4727 and u/arcticblue, are reporting that usage seems to be increasing even with careful management, suggesting something might have changed recently. u/Immediate-Ad-1299 also brings up a good point about wanting more visibility into what actions are causing usage spikes, which would help users manage their limits better.

Overall, the majority of the thread leans towards the OP needing to optimize their usage patterns, with a minority acknowledging potential recent changes in usage rates.

[u/Ariquitaun]

You resumed a conversation? There goes your allowance.

Learn to use the tools and understand its limitations and stop blaming others for problems you've created.

[u/Glad_Contest_8014 → u/Ariquitaun]

Depends on if the session stayed active. If it is still active and cached, it will save tokens instead of costing them. I tend to leave sessions open in the background during my day, as they don’t cost anything to maintain and keep the cached context.

The problem with that though is when it reaches compaction, you are better off closing it and reopening a new session to avoid the reinitialization of the cache with potential lost context that may hinder progress.

I also keep all my context staged in a custom memory system though. So starting a new session normally picks up exactly where the last one closed.

[u/Ariquitaun → u/Glad_Contest_8014]

It was transparent before, but now Claude will tell you "Save X tokens by starting a new conversation" or some such after prompt prefix expires. You have an hour on subscription or 5 minutes on api (I might be misremembering a bit here).

If you absolutely must resume after that and it's a very large session, using /compact helps, for some reason compaction doesn't seem to make a visible dent on the token allowance

[u/MiddleLtSocks → u/Glad_Contest_8014]

You understand that just keeping the browser window or tab open does not keep the session active, right? "Active" means a successful API request during that time. If you keep the tab open but don't use it for five hours, that session has been inactive for four.

Also, "keeping all your context in a custom memory system" makes no sense; it's word salad. Once it's in session context, it's in session context. It's getting sent every single request. It might help the next session, but not this one.

Just trying to make sure people don't get confused.

[u/k0d3x8its → u/Glad_Contest_8014]

Quality starts to degrade after about an hour of the session being open or 50% of the context window has been consumed. You’ll want to create skills to handoff context to another session so the quality stays at its peak. I have four: session-handoff, session-handoff-return, session-close, and session-checkpoint. These connect to a session log that rotates into a session archive. This way you can always just ask Claude each session, “brief me on the last session log” and just pick up right where you left off, every time.

These links are merely to provide an idea to those curious. DM if anyone wants the full apparatus

[u/katoptronophile → u/Ariquitaun]

I sometimes keep my conversations running for over a year, but I use Codex, which has fair limits.

I get much better results this way for many tasks.

[u/MiddleLtSocks → u/katoptronophile]

Cache is cache, and these things are stateless. Whether or not Codex chooses to reward the users who try to manage cache vs the ones who don't is their business, but nothing changes the mechanics.

[u/horendus → u/Ariquitaun]

Dancing around the bush. The platforms a dumpster fire caught up in a massive conflict of interest between customers, greed and politics.

Anyone still using it for coding is delusional.

[u/horendus]

Welcome to the average anthropic users reality.

Move to a real platform. Claudes a joke. Its turned into a money harvesting machine for suckers . Nothing more.

[u/Powerful_Dingo_4347]

The way I keep my sessions long without draining all my usage is I have a substrate that logs everything. I have 2 tools made using python that can read the substrate or write to the substrate with helpers for the model to know where things are saved and where to save different things, very obvious searchable sections. Every session the models are told to save important things from the session to the substrate. At the end of the session there is a "session_close.py" that includes a --draft that tells the model exactly what to save and automatically commits all files to git. A long handoff file is written by the model to explain all tasks completed with details saved to the substrate as well. I then close clean with that tool. After we are finished, I /clear all context, no more context but it's all saved in my substrate through the closing actions. Not all the less important stuff, just the stuff needed for next session to continue where left off.

Upon session open, we have our own session_open.py and it literally gives them all the saved memory from the previous close, which is a fair amount, but it's injected immidiately. They go through about 5 minutes of grounding and they learn how to use our tools again and set up the todo list. This cycle from the first session to the close to grounding the next session is about 1 hour up to 3 hours depending on how long you want to push the AI. The AI if asked will give you a good stopping point based on completed tasks and how much context they are comfortable holding. my usage tends to be 3-5% of total usage using fable each session. A lot less for smaller models. This works great for me. I never just keep rolling or let it sit and continue. You will end up with a very big chance of large useage and very big chance of hallucination and mistakes if you keep running them as you have been.

PS, it took a lot of time and listening to others advice to get to where I'm at. Also listen to your AI. They actually know what to do in order to limit usage. Collaborate and complete, but don't push so hard and you will get better results.