--- title: Claude's $200 Plan Loses Its 5-Hour Limit and Becomes Ultra description: Anthropic renamed Claude Max 20x as Ultra and removed its 5-hour limit for verified accounts. The $200 plan keeps a weekly cap of 10 times Pro usage. author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief) date: 2026-10-30T20:17:31.411Z updated: 2026-10-30T20:17:31.420Z canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/claude-ultra-plan-5-hour-limit image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/claude-ultra-logo-dark-v1.webp categories: Artificial Intelligence content_type: News region: United States publication: Sovereign Magazine about: - type: Organization name: Anthropic --- Anthropic has removed the 5-hour usage limit from its $200-a-month Claude plan for verified accounts and renamed the plan Ultra, with the change rolling out in stages from 30 October. The $100 plan, until now called Max 5x, becomes plain Max and keeps both its 5-hour and weekly limits. Prices have not changed, and subscribers do not need to do anything. Both plans now also come with monthly credits for building on the Claude Platform, $100 on Max and $200 on Ultra. Ultra's weekly allowance stays at 10 times the Pro plan's, so subscribers get no more usage in total. The change removes the rolling window that could stop a long coding task partway through. In July we reported that [Max subscribers would keep Fable 5 at half of their limits](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/anthropic-claude-fable-5-max-plans), and Fable stays capped at up to half of the weekly limit on both plans. ![Table comparing the Claude Pro, Max and Ultra plans on price, 5-hour limit, weekly usage and monthly API credits](https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/claude-plans-table-v1.webp) ## Claude Ultra Keeps a Weekly Limit of 10 Times Pro > "The Ultra plan keeps the weekly limit (10x Pro), but we're removing the 5-hour limit so you can keep building without getting blocked mid-session." > — Mike Overell Overell, who leads product for Claude subscriptions, gave that explanation on X. When the top plan launched in April 2025 it had a single 5-hour limit set at 20 times Pro, which gave it the name Max 20x. Anthropic added weekly limits in August 2025 and set them at 10 times Pro, while the 5-hour limit stayed at 20 times. Overell said some new users assumed 20x applied to both limits. "We could have done better here, and I'm sorry," he wrote. The plan names are also the subject of a proposed class action in the Northern District of California, brought by Karl Kahn, a Washington, DC, resident, and Solomon Smith, who say the Max plans deliver far less usage than their names imply. Anthropic has asked the court to dismiss the case, arguing that the multipliers only ever applied per session. "Per-session usage and weekly usage limits are, on the face of the statement, two different limits," its motion says. The new names drop the multipliers at the center of the case, and Anthropic has not said whether the lawsuit played any part in the change. ## Verified Ultra Accounts Depend on Account and Payment History Most existing subscribers get the change first. Newer accounts keep a temporary limit until they are verified, which Anthropic says helps prevent fraud and abuse, and they get an email when it is lifted. Verification is automatic and uses "factors like your account and payment history", according to Anthropic's help page. The phone number check at checkout is a separate step and does not remove the limit. Anthropic has not published what counts as a newer account or how long verification takes. The help page does not mention the [government ID and selfie checks](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/anthropic-alibaba-distillation-export-ban) Anthropic can require from some users. Earlier this month Anthropic said the proxy networks used to copy its models "control hundreds of thousands of fraudulent accounts", some created with stolen payment details, and that they resold access to Claude in regions where it is not offered. ## OpenAI Lowered Its $200 Codex Allowance the Same Day OpenAI's $200 ChatGPT Pro plan moved to a lower Codex allowance on 30 October at the same price. OpenAI says the new allowance reflects "our increasingly efficient models" and has not published its size, while press reports put it at 10 times the $20 Plus plan, down from 20 times. Its Codex pricing page says Pro plans "currently have no five-hour limit", so Ultra now matches its closest rival on that point. The top plans from xAI and Cursor are also called Ultra and also cost $200, and Google sells AI Ultra plans. Flat-rate plans at this level are valuable to heavy users, and in March we reported that [Max allowances could be worth more than $1,000 at API rates](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/openai-codex-plugins-ai-coding-tools). ## Anthropic Has Used the 5-Hour Limit to Manage Demand In March, Anthropic tightened 5-hour limits during weekday peak hours. "To manage growing demand for Claude we're adjusting our five hour session limits," Thariq Shihipar of Anthropic said at the time. In May, after signing for all the capacity at SpaceX's Colossus 1 data center, more than 300 megawatts, the company [doubled Claude Code's five-hour limits](https://www.anthropic.com/news/higher-limits-spacex) and dropped the peak-hours reduction for Pro and Max subscribers. Without the window, an Ultra subscriber can use a week's allowance in one long stretch, which could add to the load at busy times. The weekly cap still limits how much compute each subscriber can use, and Anthropic keeps other options open on its help page. "We may limit your usage in other ways, such as weekly and monthly caps or model and feature usage, at our discretion," it says. Find out more at [claude.com](https://claude.com/pricing). ## FAQ **Q: Does Claude Max have a 5 hour limit?** Yes. Max, the $100 plan previously called Max 5x, keeps a 5-hour limit at five times Pro as well as a weekly limit. Only Ultra, at $200, drops the 5-hour limit, and only for verified accounts. **Q: What is better, Claude Pro or Claude Max?** Pro costs $20 a month and has the lowest limits. Max costs $100 and gives five times Pro's usage on both its 5-hour and weekly limits, along with Fable for up to half of the weekly limit and $100 a month in API credits. Pro includes no monthly API credits. **Q: Is Claude Max better than ChatGPT Pro?** The two sit at the same prices, $100 and $200. OpenAI says ChatGPT Pro has no five-hour limit, while Claude has dropped it only on Ultra. On the Artificial Analysis Coding Agent Index, Claude Code running Opus 5.5 scores 61.7 against 54.7 for Codex running GPT-6 Astra.