Anthropic announces new usage limits for Claude paid plans, likely to curb users who continue using Claude Code 24/7

Anthropic, the developer and provider of the large-scale language model Claude, has announced that it has tightened the usage restrictions for Claude Pro and Claude Max, its paid plans for Claude. It has been pointed out that this change in specifications is intended to curb users who continue to use the agent-based coding tool Claude Code 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

We're rolling out new weekly rate limits for Claude Pro and Max in late August. We estimate they'll apply to less than 5% of subscribers based on current usage. pic.twitter.com/X8FAss3jIC

— Anthropic (@AnthropicAI) July 28, 2025

Anthropic unveils new rate limits to curb Claude Code power users | TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/28/anthropic-unveils-new-rate-limits-to-curb-claude-code-power-users/

The new usage restrictions apply to the Claude Pro plan, which costs $20 (approximately 3,000 yen) per month, and the Claude Max plan, which costs $100 (approximately 14,900 yen) or $200 (approximately 30,000 yen) per month, and the restrictions will apply from August 28, 2025.

According to Anthropic, the 'usage limit that resets every 5 hours' that was already applied at the time of writing will continue to apply, and in addition, two types of usage limits that reset every 7 days will also be applied. Of the two new usage limits, one will apply to the whole, and the other will apply to Claude Opus 4, the latest AI model at the time of writing. However, Anthropic explains that subscribers to the Claude Max plan will be able to exceed the limit by paying a separate fee for the standard API.

Users have already reported that Anthropic has been quietly tightening usage limits on Claude's paid subscription plan.

Anthropic tightens restrictions on Claude Code usage without notifying users, sparking outrage - GIGAZINE

The problem is said to be caused by an increase in users using Claude Code 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, nonstop, because the Claude Max plan allows users to use Claude Code at a much lower cost than using the standard API. In fact, Anthropic's network has been in a state of overload several times. According to its status page , Anthropic experienced at least seven major outages in June and July 2025.

'Claude Code has faced unprecedented demand since its launch,' said Anthropic spokesperson Amie Rotherham, who said the usage restrictions will affect less than 5% of subscribers. No specific usage restrictions have been announced, but Rotherham said Claude Pro users will be able to use Claude Sonnet 4 for 40 to 80 hours per week through Claude Code.

They also state that a $100/month Claude Max user can expect 140-280 hours of Claude Sonnet 4 usage and 15-35 hours of Claude Opus 4 usage, while a $200/month Claude Max user can expect 240-480 hours of Claude Sonnet 4 usage and 24-40 hours of Claude Opus 4 usage, although of course usage may vary depending on the size of the codebase and other factors.

TechCrunch, an IT news site, said, 'It's a bit unclear how Anthropic is measuring usage,' and noted that Anthropic announced that in April 2025, 'the $200/month Claude Max plan will offer up to 20 times the usage of the Claude Pro plan.' However, it pointed out that, 'If this limit is applied, Claude Max users who pay $200/month will only have about six times the amount of Claude Code time available to them than the Pro plan.'