[BUG] 5-hour limit reached in less than 1h30

Environment

Platform (select one):
- Anthropic API
- AWS Bedrock
- Google Vertex AI
- Other:
Claude CLI version: 1.0.89 (Claude Code)
Operating System: macOS 15.5
Terminal: Terminal App

Bug Description

Claude Code says " ⎿ 5-hour limit reached ∙ resets 12pm", but I only started paying for Claude (and used Claude Code) less than 1h30 ago...

Steps to Reproduce

Create a new subscription
Use Claude Code for 1h30 (including one sub agent?)
Observe the error message

Expected Behavior

See the 5h limit after 5h of use...

Actual Behavior

Got " ⎿ 5-hour limit reached ∙ resets 12pm" in less than 1h30 of use.

Additional Context

Found 3 possible duplicate issues:

This issue will be automatically closed as a duplicate in 3 days.

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🤖 Generated with Claude Code

May be a duplicate of #3460 but there is no activity there?

This is the worst Customer feature that any company has ever implemented - it is not clear, and is infuriating, especially if you are paying for a service.

Something is definitely wrong with their usage limits calculation. I'm getting the same thing after literally only running a /compact command today to compact a session I had yesterday (albeit I had to run the command about 5 times because the api kept timing out, but still).. Being on the Max plan, there's just no way I used all of my limit just running /compact. Thank god I only have to wait 1 hour, but there needs to be an easy command you can run to see a breakdown of your limits and how it's calculating them.

same is happening to me. prior to this week using a monitor tool, it would pretty much exactly show what was happening and when it would run out. now it's no where near the time or token usage and i get 5 hour limit reached after an hour or two

🔋 T:6.3k/28.6k | $:7.61/119 | ⌛️2h 18m | Usage:22%

📊 Session-Based Dynamic Limits
Based on your historical usage patterns when hitting limits (P90)
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
💰 Cost Usage: 🟡 [█████████████████████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░] 59.5% $7.61 / $12.78

📊 Token Usage: 🟢 [██████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░] 21.9% 6,257 / 28,615

📨 Messages Usage: 🟢 [████████████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░] 40.7% 118 / 290
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
⏱️ Time to Reset: 🟡 [████████████████████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░] 2h 6m

🤖 Model Distribution: 🤖 [██████████████████████████████████████████████████] Sonnet 100.0%
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
🔥 Burn Rate: 36.0 tokens/min 🐌
💲 Cost Rate: $0.0438 $/min

🔮 Predictions:
Tokens will run out: 01:51
Limit resets at: 02:00

This is the worst Customer feature that any company has ever implemented - it is not clear, and is infuriating, especially if you are paying for a service.

It actually is very clear and even documented if you would read it.
I cant remember the exact numbers but you get X message per session. A session is defined by 5 hours from the first prompt.
If you use more message than your tier/session allows within that 5 hour session? You get cut off and use until the time is reset.
Its also hard capped to 50 of those sessions per month and in about 22 hours? They are also enforcing a weekly cap in combination to the monthly cap while keeping 50 sessions... Its so lame...

I've never seen this message before, and today I got it after 2-3 hours of light/normal use...

I switched over to "Opus Plan Mode" yesterday, if that makes any difference.

Yeah, this is a terrible policy (and customer experience) for sure. I think the biggest issue is that it seems like compacting history gets included. I suppose it makes sense, given that it's all text/tokens, but it provides no value to the customer, and is really only necessary due to limitations in LLMs. Which is to say it's essentially a vendor problem, not a customer problem. The issue for me is that starting a new chat adds a whole ton of time/work in explaining any previous problems, breakthroughs, and/or progress to the new agent, since it has absolutely no idea what's going on when a chat begins.

This whole context issue (among many other things) is why we're not getting replaced by AI any time soon. Complete amnesiac human employees would be a bit of a disaster at any company, no? It would be like Severance, but where the employee also forgot everything about the job when they walked through the door! Heh...

Same got reached 5 hour limit after 44mins

I typically use it moderately on a 4 hour shift right now, used to use it on 8 hour shifts with no issues, now with this update I can't even make it 3 hours without hitting the limit.

same

Same issue here. I used to have 3 projects open in VS Code, multiple tasks running simultaneously and still not use all my daily usage. Now, I have one project open, run one task as simple as "update html files to use new template file", and it can't even complete it before running out of tokens; there's no way I'm using that much. It's constantly compacting. If compacting this frequently is part of transitioning contexts to handle workflow, personally I don't think that should count against users' data.

PLUS I have ~$20 of credits for extra usage and it won't let me use that up either. Update: This morning, I sign in and it tells me 3hrs 50m to reset (as though my clock has been ticking, when I definitely didn't use it within 5 hours) and I'm at 7% usage for the 5 hours window... despite having literally just woken up, so I hadn't used anything.

I’m having the exact same problem—it’s exactly as you described. By the way, I get the impression that the MAX plan now has the same limits as Google’s Antygravity on the PRO plan.
Is there a solution? What should I do?

Max 5x ($100/mo) — hit my session limit in 1.5 hours today, outside peak hours, normal workload. That one session now shows as 18% of my weekly usage. Something is seriously miscounting on the backend.

I’m experiencing the same issue. I’ve been using Claude Code on the Pro Plan for two weeks now, and about three or four days ago, my rate limit usage increased significantly. Last week, I was performing very heavy and complex tasks, involving multiple subagents and a wide range of skills. However, even simple tasks, such as changing the colors of four div containers, now consume 25% of my session rate limit. This is clearly a bug.

I got the same issue! :(

Still happening as of April 1, 2026. Max 20 plan, v2.1.89 — 100% usage in ~70 minutes after reset. Light conversational coding only.

This issue was opened months ago and is clearly not resolved.

Full report: #41788
Related: #38335, #38239, #40790, #40895, #41055, #38345, #41174, #41550, #41617, #41663, #41779, #41802

I've been experiencing the same issue on Max 20 ($200/mo) — rate limit 100% exhausted in ~70 minutes.

After setting up a monitoring proxy using the official ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL env var, I identified two cache bugs as the root cause (#40524, #34629) and measured the impact: cache read ratio dropped to 4.3%, meaning ~20x token inflation per turn. After applying workarounds it stabilized at 89-99%.

Full analysis with per-request measured data, safe workarounds, and community references (including cc-cache-fix): https://github.com/ArkNill/claude-code-cache-analysis

Update (April 2): v2.1.90 has significantly improved cache efficiency — benchmark shows 95-99% cache read in stable sessions (both npm and standalone installations).

If you're still affected:

Update: claude update (or npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code)
Pin the version: add "DISABLE_AUTOUPDATER": "1" to ~/.claude/settings.json env section
Avoid --resume (still broken)

Note: server-side quota issues (org-level pool sharing, accounting mismatches) remain unresolved — the above fixes the client-side cache drain only.

Benchmark data: https://github.com/ArkNill/claude-code-cache-analysis

Update (April 2): v2.1.90 has significantly improved cache efficiency — benchmark shows 95-99% cache read in stable sessions (both npm and standalone installations).

If you're still affected:
1. Update: `claude update` (or `npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code`)

2. Pin the version: add `"DISABLE_AUTOUPDATER": "1"` to `~/.claude/settings.json` env section

3. Avoid `--resume` (still broken)
Note: server-side quota issues (org-level pool sharing, accounting mismatches) remain unresolved — the above fixes the client-side cache drain only.

Benchmark data: https://github.com/ArkNill/claude-code-cache-analysis

Thats great... but i want my 60% wasted usage restored.... Bit late for that for most people... And humor yourself, check the "npm release with source maps" of claude code, its insane what a vibe coded mess it is xD

April 3 update: v2.1.91 fixes the cache regression that caused the worst drain. If you are still hitting limits after updating, there are additional unfixed mechanisms: a 200K tool result budget cap, a client-side false rate limiter, and silent context stripping — all confirmed via proxy testing. Anthropic acknowledged peak-hour tightening on X (Lydia Hallie) but stated "none were over-charging you." Measured data and analysis: claude-code-cache-analysis

Can someone with a platform start a petition against Anthropic?
We need an organized community response — a formal petition demanding:
∙ An official public statement explaining exactly what is happening
∙ A specific committed date for when it will be fixed
∙ Everyone who signs commits to canceling their subscription if the issue is not fixed by that date
I don’t have the followers or media connections to get this the attention it deserves. If you do — a large GitHub following, tech media contacts, YouTube, X — please step up and start it. This community is big enough to make noise if someone organizes it.
Who’s willing to lead this?

What an utter scam lmao.... So... The free credits you are given? The 200 usd "extra usage" they give you?
Turns out... they are only "extra" and "useable" long as you have an active subscription... If it runs out? You cant use the extra usage when "limits are hit".... Cant confirm as it was free but thats pretty wild if it works the same if you added cash manually....

In any case? Total scam company...cancelled and went to codex.

So insane you cant use cash money credits without an active sub lol...

Something that helped me: the usage limit is account-wide, and it includes subagents. In practice, that means your quota often disappears much faster than the visible conversation would suggest.

I ended up building a tool for myself that estimates time until you hit the wall based on your actual token burn (it's part of unsnooze).

Instead of looking at just the active chat, it accounts for all active sessions and subagent transcripts, then calibrates against your own previous limit stops to estimate how much of your quota is left. It warns at configurable thresholds (e.g. 80% and 95%) so you can /compact, switch models, or finish a checkpoint before the limit hits.

Every metric is labeled as Exact, Calibrated, or Estimated so it doesn't pretend to know more than it actually does.

It won't give you more quota, but it does make the limit much less of a surprise. The same tool also resumes the session automatically after the official reset, which is what I originally built it for.

https://github.com/saaranshM/unsnooze

what a joke dealing with the same shit total fucking sham

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[BUG] 5-hour limit reached in less than 1h30 #6457

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[BUG] 5-hour limit reached in less than 1h30 #6457

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