[Meta] Unexpected change in Claude usage limits as of 2025-09-29. (30+ reports)

Preflight Checklist

I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

(Treating this as a bug, since I do not know if it is a misconfiguration with the Anthropic rate limiter or a failure of Anthropic to communicate with its customers.)

Unannounced Reduction in Weekly Rate Limits

Since the release of Claude Sonnet 4.5 on September 29th, I (and many others) have experienced reduced usage limits on our subscriptions. As a Claude Pro subscriber, I was previously able to use Claude Code for about 40 to 50 hours per week, in terms of elapsed time when Claude is actually doing work, accounting for user interaction breaks in the work. This was in line with the email that you sent on 2025-07-28, which stated:

Most Pro users can expect 40-80 hours of Sonnet 4 within their weekly rate limits. This will vary based on factors such as codebase size and user settings like auto-accept mode. Users running multiple Claude Code instances in parallel will hit their limits sooner.

Now, due to a rate limiter misconfiguration or unannounced policy change, I am only able to use Claude Code for about 6 to 8 hours per week in terms of elapsed time when Claude is actually doing work, accounting for user interaction breaks in the work. This has had a severe impact on my established workflow and overall productivity.

Widespread Reports of Problem

What Should Happen?

Action from Anthropic

If this is a rate limiter misconfiguration, then acknowledge it and provide proper updates to your paying customers while you fix it.
If this is an unannounced usage limit change, then communicate it to your paying customers and explain why you could not provide advance notification, similar to what you did in late July of this year.

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

Acquire a Claude Pro subscription. Work with Claude for a day and see how much weekly usage you have left at https://claude.ai/settings/usage .

Claude Model

Sonnet (default)

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

1.0.126

Claude Code Version

2.0.9

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Ubuntu/Debian Linux

Terminal/Shell

Windows Terminal

Additional Information

No response

@emcd

Hi @emcd indeed there are bunch of reports about this since days ago. I spent all my weekly usage in let's say 10h of work? I just worked for about 3 days with a Max Plan. Weeks earlier I was able to work with Sonnet continuously during the entire day without reaching even 5h limits, the only way where I reached 5h limits was using 3-4 terminals or working with 1 but using Opus.

Despite multiple reports, not just by me in #8886, but other users in #8505, #8918 and now yours, Anthropic hasn't mentioned a word about it. Custom support messages in "Get Help" feature in Claude web or Claude Desktop return an automatic message basically saying "This is how usage limit is intended for, our employees can't do anything about rate limits so no human supporter will reach out":

In the meantime Anthropic has launch new tools like Petri for sentiment analysis https://x.com/AnthropicAI/status/1975248654609875208 and has posted another things about cybersecurity https://x.com/AnthropicAI/status/1974199155657748868, etc.

However not a single word about fast depletion on weekly usage. Even 20x Max Users are reaching limits rapidly, even some of them state that use only a single terminal.

In the meantime you can use Sonnet 4.5 from Github Copilot for 10$ a month "without limits" or at least that's what says in my terminal:

As Copilot use API in the name of copilot, I think Microsoft pay the bill for the usage consumption and no user-specific rate limit is tracked in Anthropic platform (I assume). It's sadly funny that we are being ignored after paying considerable amount of money for our subscriptions directly in Anthropic but we can use Anthropic's models from a third party for way less money (10$ in Copilot Plus plan) sacrificing some performance (Claude Code has better performance than Sonnet 4.5 from Copilot CLI).

My friend told me this now:

Dude, it is really fu**ed up
Today made 2 requests and consumed 27% 5h limit
And 12% of the weekly limit

He has 20$ Pro plan

yes, this must either be a bug or be a bug!

Also got it displayed now. I was using it as usual, may be more than that - it was circulating debug print outs and filling up the context with noise and then due to compression lost important information and started to debug again in circles. That it is doing since quite a few days now. Also, each file-edit is unsuccessful, each 'rm' is unsuccessful, each debug script needs to be rewritten because of unicode-icon-decorated, polluted code (I'm on Windows! Can't you see?). And of course this needs to be re-done in different variations times over times.. -> 50% of payed bucks is for erroneous behavior. I'm on max.

Somehow and something has been bugged. BUT! I reverted instantly upon trying 2.x back to 1.0.112 and use Sonnet 4.1. The new Sonnet 4.5 is making me high blood pressure. I call it. So may be thats a penalty for not using "" "the worlds best model" "".

this or the either way, this is a breaker. The new 2.0.x version is extreme in talking, but less useful in working on several reasons..

I second this issue. I am on Pro plan and getting rate-limited for the week from very light usage.

 WARN  Fetching latest model pricing from LiteLLM...                                     ccusage 3:57:36 pm

ℹ Loaded pricing for 1631 models                                                        ccusage 3:57:36 pm

 ╭───────────────────────────────────────────╮
 │                                           │
 │  Claude Code Token Usage Report - Weekly  │
 │                                           │
 ╰───────────────────────────────────────────╯

┌──────────┬────────────┬──────────┬──────────┬────────────┬──────────┬────────────┬──────────┐
│ Week     │ Models     │    Input │   Output │      Cache │    Cache │      Total │     Cost │
│          │            │          │          │     Create │     Read │     Tokens │    (USD) │
├──────────┼────────────┼──────────┼──────────┼────────────┼──────────┼────────────┼──────────┤
│ 2025     │ -          │  235,243 │   30,283 │  3,933,175 │ 43,847,… │ 48,045,977 │   $29.06 │
│ 09-28    │ sonnet-4-5 │          │          │            │          │            │          │
├──────────┼────────────┼──────────┼──────────┼────────────┼──────────┼────────────┼──────────┤
│ 2025     │ -          │   21,983 │    5,127 │  3,769,492 │ 30,271,… │ 34,067,651 │   $23.36 │
│ 10-05    │ sonnet-4-5 │          │          │            │          │            │          │
├──────────┼────────────┼──────────┼──────────┼────────────┼──────────┼────────────┼──────────┤
│ Total    │            │  257,226 │   35,410 │  7,702,667 │ 74,118,… │ 82,113,628 │   $52.42 │
└──────────┴────────────┴──────────┴──────────┴────────────┴──────────┴────────────┴──────────┘

This is crap. I used to be able to use Opus and have it reset in 5 hours. Now I have to wait an entire week until my next billing cycle?

Anthropic finally responded to the support request that I filed in their support system last Friday (2025-10-03); here is their non-answer:

To which I replied:

Hi [redacted], I am not asking for a reset of my limits. I am asking for Anthropic to acknowledge that the limits were changed last week and to officially state what the new limits are. The email that your company sent to me in late July indicated that I could reasonably use my Claude Pro subscription for about 40 to 80 hours per week and this was the case up until last week. After your change in the usage limits last week, this is no longer even close to the reality. I am now being limited to about 6 to 8 hours per week. Your company never communicated about this particular reduction in usage limits. (And, no, it's not my imagination. Please see the Reddit threads that I included in my initial engagement with your CS agent. Also, please see any of the numerous reports on X and in the Claude Code Github repo.)

All of the Usage Limits Best Practices guidance is something that I had already been practicing prior to your downgrade of my usage limits (and those of many other people) on September 29th. I do not need to be told how to work more efficiently; I am already an efficient user of your LLMs. I have been honing my prompting skills since early 2023 and I probably could have written your best practices guide for you.

Bottom line: Anthropic needs to publicly acknowledge that the usage limits were reduced in conjunction with the September 29th rollout of Claude Sonnet 4.5 and needs to provide proper documentation on what the new usage expectations are, going forward. Even then, based on what I have experienced, there is a chance that you will lose me as a subscriber, based on how Anthropic has handled this and the fact that the limits are now so small that they inhibit almost any useful development workflow.

Thank you for your attention,
Eric

Thanks for sharing. Yeah that’s everything they say every time “Check usage politics”

Another round with Anthropic support; I cannot tell if they are deliberately misdirecting and acting confused in an attempt to befuddle and bamboozle or if they are sincerely having problems understanding rather simple communication:

My reply:

Hi [redacted]. What recent email? The last time I received any communication from Anthropic about usage limits was in late July of this year... more than two months ago. Those limits took effect in late August, more than one month ago, as you have correctly noted. They did not affect me. I am not talking about those limits.

I am talking about the additional reduction in limits that your company instituted near the beginning of last week. You say that most Pro users can expect 40-80 hours of Sonnet 4 within their weekly rate limits. That was my experience until the beginning of last week (late September / early October). Are you saying that the previously-stated limits do not apply to Sonnet 4.5 use? The API pricing for Sonnet 4.0 and Sonnet 4.5 is identical; why would the subscription-based usage limits not also be identical? Please document how the Sonnet 4.0 and Sonnet 4.5 subscription-based usage limits differ.

Thank you,
Eric

Nice. I checked today and there are 2 new reports about usage limits. Everyday new people create them. Also in X accounts people keeps commenting about this and not response. Just avoidance as the support member. This was supposed to affect less than 2% of users. Are all us in that 2%? I don´t think so.

#9191
#9196

@non-stop-dev

Thanks for updating the list, @non-stop-dev . It's ridiculous. I cannot tell if Anthropic is being truly brazen here or if they are living under a very large rock.

Anyway, here is the latest round with support (I'm surprised to get three responses out of them in so short of a time):

Now, they're trying to blame service incidents.... Here is my response:

Hi [redacted],

No worries about the confusion. Maybe we are starting to get on the same page now. Regarding the usage quota changes and service incidents last week, I do not accept that there is a causal connection or even a correlation. When I first noticed that abnormally high weekly usage consumption, the Anthropic status page, https://status.claude.com/, was one of the first places that I looked last week. However, every incident in the past week appears to be related to service disruption. And, it is also not ongoing, but the rate-limiting / usage quota problem is ongoing. I see no mention of rate limiting fixes. To be clear, my service has not been disrupted by an Anthropic systems failure. We are not talking about "degraded service", "elevated errors", or "unhealthy connectors"; we are talking about unexpectedly high consumption of the weekly usage quota. In a single day of what was previously normal use, I consumed over 30% of my weekly usage quota last week. That is neither normal nor expected. (And, yes, I got that number from the usage page, https://claude.ai/settings/usage, last week. Both Claude Code usage meters and that page show the same thing.)

Thank you for logging my request for clearer documentation. As of last week, the default model for Claude Code was changed to Sonnet 4.5 and it cannot be changed from within the Claude Code TUI. I have now started Claude Code with --model claude-sonnet-4-0 and will monitor if this affects my consumption of the usage quota any. While I am performing this experiment, I strongly urge Anthropic to address its communications gap. If you read the Reddit threads, you'll find that you lost quite a few customers last week, because of your failure to communicate any changes in expectations around usage.

Thanks,
Eric

@emcd

Well, at least you're getting some readings and responses. I saw Anthropic team answering recent Github issues but not related with this topic. Maybe they are some devs looking issues filtering from specific labels different from "cost" lables (I do not want to think wrong) as cost isn't their concern.

Thank you for log updates @emcd . Very kind from you

I'm also a regular pro user, primarily for daily tasks and occasional single-terminal Claude coding. Before the new usage limit policy, everything ran smoothly and I hardly ever hit the 5-hour limit. Last week, I barely used Claude at all and never reached the 5-hour limit. Yet after the new policy took effect on the 29th, I hit the weekly limit on the 6th day. There does seem to be an issue with the usage limits for Sonnet 4 and Sonnet 4.5—the difference in experience is just too noticeable.😂

@ThariqS

@ThariqS : The limits that you announced in July said that I could get 40 to 80 hours of Claude Sonnet 4 usage per week on my Pro plan. How are you calculating that number?

As @gianpaolodn says, this thread shows that you have clearly squeezed the limits far too much relative to whatever efficiency gain that you think Sonnet 4.5 has provided. We are not getting even close to the same productivity/value that we were getting before the end of September.

So, again, how are you calculating the number of hours per week that you advertised for each plan?

Well put!

I'm canceling my subscription for sure.
My intuition is to naturally stop using claude on a daily basis since i'm reaching my quota so fast that im deterred from "wasting" it.

They become master in the art of patronizing

@ThariqS

@ThariqS so this is expected usage? My limits reset last night. I am now at 78% usage, for 72$ of credits? I am on the max 200$ plan, for my last of 6 accounts.

Are you actually kidding me?

It would only be fair to have been as outspoken as I was to now admit the current usage limits are much more favorable and fair to users. I have resubscribed 1 of my accounts today, and have been having a good usage experience thus far.

I believe it is best to just ban people who abuse your limits, as opposed to going as harsh with restrictions as we had to deal with the last 2 months. I do hope the good faith you have built up with your loyal customers can be repaired from all of this. It sucks with a company you have supported since day 1 to find yourself with 1 foot in and 1 foot out of the door every other month.

If the intention was to deal with customer outlash long enough to retune opus behind the scenes to be more cost effective, a simple post in this thread would have alleviated so much concern. This was not just a dream, there are dozens of screenshots and reports from many users.

I know it will be forgotten about, as we all have hours of work to do every single day, but this was a shame how this was all handled. I do appreciate you retuning things for your paying customers. I know myself and many others have zero issue paying for a service, many times over, as long as the value and respect is there.

Apologies? What an interesting customer client relationship at this point.

Another Report: Limit reached in 3 hours instead of 5

Subscription: Pro plan
Date: 2025-11-26
Platform: Windows

Issue Description

For the past 2 months, I worked extensively with Claude Code and never hit the 5-hour limit. Today, I reached
the limit after only 3 hours of work.

What Changed

No change in my usage patterns
Using Claude Opus 4.5 (which should be more efficient according to Anthropic)
Same type of coding tasks as before

Expected vs Actual

Expected: 5 hours of usage before limit (as documented)
Actual: Limit reached after ~3 hours

This confirms the pattern others are reporting - limits are being consumed significantly faster than before
without any announced changes.

@hermannakruse

@hermannakruse isn't the new opus just using extra usage? Or goes together with the limits?

Cause if not I did pay for it instead of using my limits.

Another Report: Limit reached in 3 hours instead of 5

Subscription: Pro plan
Date: 2025-11-26
Platform: Windows

Issue Description

For the past 2 months, I worked extensively with Claude Code and never hit the 5-hour limit. Today, I reached
the limit after only 3 hours of work.

What Changed

No change in my usage patterns

Using Claude Opus 4.5 (which should be more efficient according to Anthropic)

Same type of coding tasks as before

Expected vs Actual

Expected: 5 hours of usage before limit (as documented)

Actual: Limit reached after ~3 hours

This confirms the pattern others are reporting - limits are being consumed significantly faster than before
without any announced changes.

Okey.... This is new....
I only use Sonnet 4.5 at this moment (Only Claude Code CLI).

All models 52% used
Sonnet only 22%
Who can explain that how can I have 52% while my sonnet use is 22%. So they adjusted the sonnet use and forgot the overal weekly usage? Really wondering how this is done.
Both: Resets Mon 8:59 PM

Even though Claude Code is definitely better than Codex for 90% of the tasks and I like a lot of features, this ever changing token usage is really annoying.
I am on a MAX plan, but website usage is not possible anymore as it burns tokens like hell.
Only Claude Code -for coding and GP 5.1 for brainstorming and ideation.
Where in the past Claude was winner in multiple ways. Really a bummer

It feels this all started to change when they moved their web interface form the OLD artifact system with revisions to I think the Claude Code back-end, from that moment on it went downhill with the tokens...

And customer service at Claude.... well lets not mention that, product is/was great, but customer service.... Non existent.

Just to mention why Claude Code -> It remains a "memory" so on crash you can continue and resume after instead on rereading and instructing again. If any other is able to seriously compete deff wiling to try, but so far codex is not the solution (for me)

Just for info, I think current token usage is equaling more a pro plan than a max plan :-(

@tudstudent

All models 52% used Sonnet only 22% Who can explain that how can I have 52% while my sonnet use is 22%. So they adjusted the sonnet use and forgot the overal weekly usage? Really wondering how this is done. Both: Resets Mon 8:59 PM

@tudstudent : Where are you seeing this? https://claude.ai/settings/usage only shows a 5-hour limit and a weekly limit for me. If you're seeing a UI bug on either the website or in Claude Code, then you might want to open a new issue.

Just for info, I think current token usage is equaling more a pro plan than a max plan :-(

Try being on the so-called Pro(fessional) plan... it feels more like the free tier now. Each 5-hour window that reaches 100% usage equates to around 11% to 12% of the total weekly usage. And with Opus 4.5 making the Max plan subscribers a bit happier, the chances of Anthropic doing anything about the Pro plan misery seem small. Feels like they want Pro plan users to "give in" and upgrade to Max. I like Claude, but am not going to pay US$100 / month to get back to the Pro plan usage that I had prior to the end of September, especially not after how (Mis)anthropic has treated their customers.

@tudstudent

@tudstudent : Interesting... must be something that only Max plan users see. Currently, I do not see a separate Sonnet limit:

As far as I know, what you are seeing is something new. Not sure why they would remove the separate Opus limit and replace it with a separate Sonnet limit. This feels backward, given that Opus still has the larger resource footprint. Anthropic must truly believe that Opus 4.5 is so much more efficient than Sonnet 4.5 that they want to push customers to use it instead of Sonnet. That is the only way that I think a Sonnet limit would make sense. They are trying to pressure you to use Opus for efficiency reasons.

Well, just looking back some months ago I could use a tremendous amount more with really stupid tasks (read juggling code over the web interface)
Nowadays everything in Claude Code (yes I admit easier faster, but took time). But now much less interface and much faster done...

Bottomline is that the dynamic change is not transparent and far from ideal.
And being a Max user they advertise with priority to... But customer service is a big nono at Claude.
So I would say AI = 8/10 but customer service is a 1/10.

Hmz, just checked claude code settings and it seems its per default on Opus 4.5.
Can't remember I have put it there, but it could as well explain why its going even faster...
So the message to remove it form limits... Big blabla

@ThariqS

@ThariqS : As a reminder, you said here that you would be "happy to clarify" if "[we] have more questions":

If you have more questions, happy to clarify but I'm going to close this ticket for now.

We gave you additional questions but are still waiting for clarification. In particular, I am still waiting for a clarification on how you calculate the expected number of hours of weekly usage for the various plans:

Most Pro users can expect 40-80 hours of Sonnet 4 within their weekly usage limits.

How are you determining these numbers? ^
What Pro users are seeing in practice do not match any reasonable calculation of such numbers.

Sorry for not seeing your request earlier. As I haven’t reached any limits in the last time the whole case is not very important to me just now the only numbers I have for myself as I have been working an awful lot with Claude having fun after update I run into five hours limit, but I guess that is solved as if it didn’t happen again thank you for looking.Gruss H. KruseAm 01.12.2025 um 18:40 schrieb Eric McDonald ***@***.***>:emcd left a comment (anthropics/claude-code#9094) @ThariqS : As a reminder, you said here that you would be "happy to clarify" if "[we] have more questions": If you have more questions, happy to clarify but I'm going to close this ticket for now. We gave you additional questions but are still waiting for clarification. In particular, I am still waiting for a clarification on how you calculate the expected number of hours of weekly usage for the various plans: Most Pro users can expect 40-80 hours of Sonnet 4 within their weekly usage limits. How are you determining these numbers? ^ What Pro users are seeing in practice do not match any reasonable calculation of such numbers. —Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

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[Meta] Unexpected change in Claude usage limits as of 2025-09-29. (30+ reports) #9094

Preflight Checklist

What's Wrong?

Unannounced Reduction in Weekly Rate Limits

Widespread Reports of Problem

What Should Happen?

Action from Anthropic

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

Claude Model

Is this a regression?

Last Working Version

Claude Code Version

Platform

Operating System

Terminal/Shell

Additional Information

100 remaining items

Another Report: Limit reached in 3 hours instead of 5

Issue Description

What Changed

Expected vs Actual

Another Report: Limit reached in 3 hours instead of 5

Issue Description

What Changed

Expected vs Actual

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[Meta] Unexpected change in Claude usage limits as of 2025-09-29. (30+ reports) #9094

Description

Preflight Checklist

What's Wrong?

Unannounced Reduction in Weekly Rate Limits

Widespread Reports of Problem

What Should Happen?

Action from Anthropic

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

Claude Model

Is this a regression?

Last Working Version

Claude Code Version

Platform

Operating System

Terminal/Shell

Additional Information

Activity

non-stop-dev commented on Oct 7, 2025

non-stop-dev commented on Oct 7, 2025

tony-pythony commented on Oct 7, 2025

sati-bodhi commented on Oct 8, 2025

scottalanturner commented on Oct 9, 2025

emcd commented on Oct 9, 2025

non-stop-dev commented on Oct 9, 2025

emcd commented on Oct 9, 2025

non-stop-dev commented on Oct 9, 2025

emcd commented on Oct 9, 2025

non-stop-dev commented on Oct 9, 2025

VerseXuShuwei commented on Oct 10, 2025

100 remaining items

RocketLR commented on Nov 21, 2025

DumbTechLion commented on Nov 22, 2025

Thevetat commented on Nov 22, 2025

Thevetat commented on Nov 25, 2025

hermannakruse commented on Nov 26, 2025

Another Report: Limit reached in 3 hours instead of 5

Issue Description

What Changed

Expected vs Actual

gianpaolodn commented on Nov 26, 2025

Another Report: Limit reached in 3 hours instead of 5

Issue Description

What Changed

Expected vs Actual

tudstudent commented on Nov 28, 2025

emcd commented on Nov 28, 2025

tudstudent commented on Nov 28, 2025

emcd commented on Nov 28, 2025

tudstudent commented on Nov 28, 2025

emcd commented on Dec 1, 2025

hermannakruse commented on Dec 4, 2025

github-actions commented on Dec 12, 2025

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