Anthropic has simplified the naming of its top-tier Claude subscriptions and removed one of the most visible constraints on its most expensive plan. The company has renamed the $100-a-month Claude Max 5x plan as Claude Max and the $200-a-month Claude Max 20x plan as Claude Ultra. Prices have not changed. The company announced the shift on X on Friday, saying the move is intended to make the lineup easier to understand while giving verified Ultra subscribers more flexibility in how they use the service.
The most consequential change is the removal of the five-hour usage limit for verified Ultra accounts. Previously, the $200 plan carried a cap that reset every five hours. Under the new structure, verified Ultra subscribers will no longer hit that rolling five-hour ceiling. Weekly limits remain in place, so the plan still has a defined usage envelope over a longer period. Anthropic said most existing subscribers received the change on Friday. Newer accounts will remain on a temporary limit until the company verifies them. Anthropic said the temporary limit helps prevent fraud and abuse, and that affected users will receive an email when the restriction is lifted.
The company’s official Claude account on X offered a short message to paying users: "If you’re a subscriber, there’s nothing you need to do." That suggests the change is being applied automatically rather than requiring subscribers to opt in, migrate plans, or contact support. For existing Ultra users, the practical result is fewer interruptions during heavy usage periods, provided their accounts have completed verification. For newer users, the experience may initially look similar to the old system until verification is complete.
What the renamed plans include
Anthropic’s pricing page now describes Claude Max as offering five times the usage of Claude Pro, measured every five hours and every week. The plan costs $100 a month and includes $100 a month in API credits. The API credits are a meaningful part of the value proposition for developers and teams that want to use Claude through Anthropic’s API rather than only through the consumer chat interface. The Max tier therefore sits between the standard Pro subscription and the Ultra tier, serving users who need more capacity but do not want to pay the highest monthly price.
Claude Ultra is listed at ten times Pro usage every week, with no five-hour limit for verified accounts. It costs $200 a month and includes $200 a month in API credits, up from $100 on the Max plan. Both Max and Ultra include access to Fable, Anthropic’s top model, for up to half of the weekly limit. That detail matters because access to the most capable model is often a key differentiator among subscription tiers. By allowing Fable usage up to half of the weekly cap, Anthropic is giving higher-tier subscribers substantial access to its flagship model while still preserving a weekly boundary.
In Europe, the two plans are priced at €90 and €180 a month. The euro pricing mirrors the two-tier structure and keeps the Ultra plan at roughly double the cost of Max. The regional pricing also reflects the broader reality that AI subscriptions are priced differently across markets, often due to taxes, currency considerations, and local market conditions. For European subscribers, the removal of the five-hour limit on verified Ultra accounts is likely to be the most visible change, since the price and the weekly limits remain part of the plan’s structure.
Why the five-hour limit mattered
Usage limits are a central part of the economics of AI subscriptions. Large language models require significant computing capacity, and providers must balance open-ended access with the cost of serving heavy users. Five-hour limits are one way to smooth demand and prevent a small number of accounts from consuming a disproportionate share of capacity in a short window. Weekly limits serve a similar purpose over a longer period. Removing the five-hour cap for verified Ultra subscribers does not eliminate usage limits altogether; it changes the shape of those limits. Instead of hitting a wall every few hours, verified Ultra users can concentrate their usage within the weekly allowance.
That change could be particularly important for users who work in long sessions, run complex coding tasks, or use Claude for research and writing projects that do not fit neatly into short bursts. A five-hour reset can be disruptive when a project is underway, especially if the user has already planned around a certain level of access. By removing that short-term cap for verified accounts, Anthropic is effectively giving Ultra subscribers more control over when they use their weekly allowance. The trade-off is that the weekly limit becomes the primary constraint, which may require users to manage their usage more carefully over the course of a week.
The change also reflects the competitive pressure in the AI subscription market. Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and other providers are all trying to attract power users who are willing to pay premium prices for access to advanced models. Those users often compare plans based on usage limits, model access, API credits, and the flexibility of the subscription. A five-hour limit is easy to understand, but it can also feel restrictive. Removing it from the most expensive plan is a way to differentiate Ultra from Max and to justify the higher monthly price.
Verification, fraud, and abuse
Anthropic’s decision to keep a temporary limit on newer accounts until verification is complete highlights a growing challenge for AI providers: preventing abuse without creating friction for legitimate customers. Subscription plans that offer generous usage can be targeted by bad actors who create multiple accounts, share credentials, or resell access. Verification helps the company confirm that an account belongs to a real user and that the account is not part of a coordinated effort to exploit the service. The temporary limit acts as a safeguard during that process.
The company said the temporary limit helps prevent fraud and abuse and that users will be notified by email when it is lifted. That approach is common in financial services and other online platforms, where new accounts face additional checks before receiving full privileges. For AI subscriptions, the stakes are higher because compute is expensive and misuse can affect service quality for other customers. Verification also helps Anthropic enforce its terms of service and manage capacity across its user base. The process may be inconvenient for new subscribers, but it is designed to protect the integrity of the plan.
For most existing subscribers, the change appears to be automatic. Anthropic said most existing subscribers received the change on Friday. That means long-standing Ultra users who have already been verified should see the five-hour limit disappear without needing to take action. Newer accounts will remain in a temporary state until Anthropic completes its checks. The company’s message that subscribers do not need to do anything is likely meant to reassure existing users that the transition is being handled on the backend.
The missing 20x claim
The renaming has also drawn attention to a subtle change in how Anthropic describes the Ultra plan’s usage. The old Max 20x name pointed to 20 times Pro usage. The pricing page now lists ten times Pro usage a week for Ultra. Anthropic’s post did not mention that change. The shift from a 20x label to a 10x weekly usage description is significant because it changes how the plan is presented to customers. The new name, Ultra, does not carry a multiplier in the same way, and the pricing page focuses on weekly usage rather than a direct multiple of Pro.
That discrepancy may matter to subscribers who signed up under the old Max 20x branding. Plan names and usage descriptions are not just marketing language; they set expectations about what a customer is buying. When a plan is renamed and its usage description changes, customers may reasonably ask whether the underlying allowance has changed or whether the new description is simply a clearer way of expressing the same limits. Anthropic has not publicly detailed the reasoning behind the shift, and the company’s post did not address it directly. The pricing page now serves as the primary reference for what each plan includes.
The change comes after a lawsuit filed in June claimed that Anthropic oversold the usage on both Max plans. The lawsuit adds a legal dimension to the plan changes, although the company has not said that the renaming or the description change is a response to the litigation. Legal disputes over subscription advertising are not uncommon in the technology industry, especially when plans involve complex usage limits and rapidly changing product features. For subscribers, the practical takeaway is to review the current pricing page and plan descriptions rather than relying on older marketing materials or plan names.
Earlier changes to Claude’s plans
The latest update is part of a broader pattern of adjustments to Claude’s subscription offerings. In May, Anthropic doubled five-hour limits for Claude Code, citing new computing capacity from SpaceX. That change showed that usage limits are not fixed; they can be expanded when the company secures additional capacity or improves efficiency. It also demonstrated that Anthropic is willing to adjust limits in response to demand and operational realities. The May change was specific to Claude Code, but it signaled that the company is actively managing capacity across its product line.
In April, Anthropic blocked OpenClaw and other third-party agent tools from using Claude subscriptions. That move underscored the tension between open access and platform control. Third-party tools can extend the usefulness of a subscription, but they can also strain capacity and complicate enforcement of usage limits. By restricting those tools, Anthropic sought to keep subscription usage within the boundaries of its own products and terms. The decision likely affected developers and power users who had built workflows around third-party integrations.
Taken together, these changes show that Anthropic is continuously tuning its subscription model. The company must balance customer expectations, compute costs, fraud prevention, and competitive pressure. The renaming of Max and Ultra is one part of that broader effort. The removal of the five-hour limit for verified Ultra subscribers is another. The temporary limit for new accounts and the continued weekly caps show that Anthropic is not abandoning usage controls altogether. Instead, it is reshaping those controls to better match the needs of different customer segments.
What subscribers should watch
For existing subscribers, the most important question is whether their account has been verified. Most existing subscribers received the change on Friday, according to Anthropic. Newer accounts will remain on a temporary limit until verification is complete. Users in that category should watch for an email from Anthropic confirming that the limit has been lifted. Until then, they may still experience a five-hour cap even though the plan is now called Ultra.
Subscribers should also review the current pricing page for the details of their plan. The page lists Max at five times Pro usage every five hours and every week, with $100 a month in API credits. It lists Ultra at ten times Pro usage every week, with no five-hour limit for verified accounts and $200 a month in API credits. Both plans include Fable for up to half of the weekly limit. European pricing is listed at €90 and €180 a month. Those details are more reliable than older plan names or social media summaries.
Developers who rely on API credits should note the difference between the two tiers. Max includes $100 a month in API credits, while Ultra includes $200 a month. For teams that use Claude through the API, the extra credits can offset part of the higher subscription cost. The inclusion of Fable in both plans also means that higher-tier subscribers are not the only ones with access to the top model, though the weekly limit still applies. The plan structure therefore rewards heavy usage and API consumption rather than simply gating the best model behind the most expensive tier.
The broader lesson is that AI subscription plans are becoming more complex and more closely tied to compute economics. Providers are experimenting with different combinations of monthly fees, usage caps, API credits, and model access. Anthropic’s latest change is a clear example of that experimentation. The company is simplifying its plan names while adjusting the limits that shape the user experience. For subscribers, the key is to understand the current terms and to keep an eye on future updates. Anthropic has shown that it is willing to change limits and plan structures as its capacity and business needs evolve.
For now, the company is directing subscribers to its pricing page and X account for updates, with no action required for existing paying users. Verified Ultra subscribers can use Claude without the five-hour reset, while newer accounts wait for verification and weekly limits remain in place for everyone. That is the current state of the plan, and it is likely to remain the reference point until Anthropic announces its next adjustment.
Source: TNW | Anthropic News