Anthropic Renames Claude Max Plans and Drops the Five Hour Limit for Verified Ultra Accounts
We’re renaming our Max plans: Max 5x → Max Max 20x → Ultra Max is still $100/month, and Ultra is still $200. If you’re a subscriber, there’s nothing you need to do. We’re also removing the 5-hour limit for verified Ultra accounts, starting today with most existing subscribers. Newer accounts keep a temporary limit until they’re verified, which helps us prevent fraud and abuse. You'll get an email when it's removed. Weekly limits remain unchanged. View our plans here:
Context
Removing the five hour cap on the top plan lets heavy users of Claude Code and agents work in long sessions, as AI labs compete for power users.
Claude's paid consumer plans include Pro and two higher tiers previously called Max 5x and Max 20x. They carry a rolling five hour usage limit plus weekly limits.
Deep dive
Anthropic's Claude account said on Friday that it is renaming its Max plans. According to the post, Max 5x becomes Max and Max 20x becomes Ultra, with prices unchanged at 100 and 200 dollars a month.
The bigger change is that Anthropic is removing the five hour limit for verified Ultra accounts, starting today with most existing subscribers. The post says newer accounts keep a temporary limit until they are verified. Weekly limits remain unchanged.
Claude's pricing page now lists Free, Pro, Max and Ultra, with Ultra marked as having no five hour limit for verified accounts, linking to a support article on verification.
The five hour window has been a common complaint among developers who run Claude Code for long sessions, since hitting it pauses work until the window resets. Removing it on the top tier makes Ultra closer to an always available plan, limited only by weekly caps. The change gives Anthropic a clear selling point for developers choosing between AI coding plans.
What to expect next
Watch how quickly newer Ultra accounts are verified, and whether Anthropic later loosens weekly limits or brings similar changes to the Max plan. Heavy users will test whether weekly caps now become the binding limit. OpenAI and Google may respond with their own plan changes as competition for developers paying 100 to 200 dollars a month intensifies. Any change to weekly caps would matter most to developers running long agent sessions.