Running out of Claude halfway through a report can mean waiting for a five-hour reset. Anthropic began removing that session cap on 30 October for verified accounts on its $200 monthly plan, now called Ultra. The amount available across a week stays capped.
Based on 5 reviewed sources · See sources
Same prices, different names
Claude’s announcement renames Max 5x to Max and Max 20x to Ultra. Existing subscribers move automatically, with the published web prices unchanged at $100 and $200 a month respectively. The session-cap removal is rolling out in stages, beginning with most existing Ultra subscribers.
Claude announces the plan names and staged removal of the five-hour limit for verified Ultra accounts. Weekly limits remain in place.
View the original post on X ↗Two clocks, two plans
Current help pages checked 1 November 2026. Multipliers compare usage with Pro over the stated period.
| Plan · web price | Documented allowance |
|---|---|
| Max · $100/month | Five times Pro every five hours and every week. |
| Ultra · $200/month | Ten times Pro per week. No five-hour cap for verified accounts; a temporary cap applies before verification. |
Why 20x became 10x
Mike Overell, who leads product for Claude subscriptions, explained that the old Max 20x name came from its original five-hour allowance. When Anthropic later added a weekly limit, it set that at ten times Pro while keeping the five-hour allowance at twenty times Pro.
Overell acknowledged that some users assumed the name applied to both periods. Anthropic says the weekly allowance is unchanged by the rename. Comparing the old 20x name with today’s 10x weekly figure therefore does not, by itself, establish that the rename halved capacity.
Verification decides when the cap disappears
The Ultra help page says verification happens automatically using factors such as account and payment history. Phone verification at checkout is a separate process and does not remove the temporary cap. In Settings → Usage, an absent Current session bar is the documented sign that the account is verified.
On 1 November, developer HisashiSpace posted his own usage screen: it shows Ultra, a weekly allowance and a Fable allowance, with no five-hour bar visible. That is one account’s posted interface, not a controlled test of how much work a subscription can complete.
A developer shares an Ultra usage screen with weekly bars and no five-hour bar visible. This is a posted account observation, not a matched capacity test.
View the original post on X ↗The practical change is when subscribers can use their allowance. A longer stretch of work can draw on the week’s budget without the shorter reset interrupting it. The weekly ceiling remains a limit on included usage.
Sources
- Original Max and Ultra plan announcement
Claude · Announcement ·
- Subscription product lead explains the two usage clocks
Mike Overell · Anthropic · Announcement ·
- Ultra pricing, weekly limits and automatic verification
Claude Help Center · Documentation
- Max pricing and session and weekly limits
Claude Help Center · Documentation
- Developer shares his Ultra usage screen
HisashiSpace · Research ·
Written with AI assistance from the sources above. Analysis and practical implications are our interpretation. Our editorial approach.
