Claude Ultra Plan Replaces Max 20x and Drops the 5-Hour Limit

Hakkı ALKAN

October 30, 2026

Anthropic is renaming its Claude Ultra plan lineup: the $100 Max 5x subscription is now simply Max, and the $200 Max 20x tier becomes Ultra. Prices do not change, and Anthropic said on October 30, 2026 that it is also removing the five-hour usage limit for verified Ultra accounts, starting today for most existing subscribers.

The change was announced on the official Claude account on X and is already reflected on Claude’s pricing page. Current subscribers do not need to do anything; their plans carry over under the new names.

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: claude.com/pricing

— Claude (@claudeai) October 30, 2026

What the Claude Ultra Plan Changes

Until now, every paid Claude consumer plan had two limits: a rolling allowance that resets every five hours and a separate weekly cap. Heavy users, especially developers running long Claude Code sessions, often hit the five-hour wall in the middle of a task and had to wait for it to reset.

On Ultra, that session limit is gone for verified accounts. Only the weekly cap remains, and Anthropic says weekly limits are unchanged. Newer accounts keep a temporary five-hour limit until verification is complete, which the company says helps it prevent fraud and abuse. Those users will get an email once the limit is lifted.

Claude Plans and Prices After the Rename

According to the updated pricing page, the consumer lineup now looks like this:

• Free ($0): limited usage every five hours and every week.
• Pro ($20 per month, or $17 per month billed annually): the baseline paid plan, with Claude Code and Fable available through paid usage credits.
• Max ($100 per month): 5x Pro usage every five hours and every week, Fable included up to half of the weekly limit, $100 a month in Claude Platform API credits and priority access at peak times.
• Ultra ($200 per month): everything in Max, no five-hour limit for verified accounts, 10x Pro usage every week and $200 a month in API credits, up from $100 on Max.

Prices exclude applicable taxes, and Anthropic notes that how quickly users reach a limit still depends on the model, chat length and file sizes.

Why It Matters

The move lands one day after OpenAI doubled ChatGPT Pro usage limits and dropped a planned cut to its $200 tier following user backlash. Both companies are competing hard for developers and power users who pay $100 to $200 a month, and usage caps have become one of the main points of comparison between their premium plans.

The clearer names should also end some confusion around the old “5x” and “20x” labels. For Ultra subscribers, the practical difference is simple: long agentic coding or research sessions no longer stop after five hours, as long as the weekly allowance lasts.

Anthropic has been busy on several fronts this week, from a major compute deal with SpaceX to a malicious Claude Code extension that targeted Cursor users, which makes subscription value a timely question for its most active customers.