Anthropic is rolling out new weekly rate limits for its AI coding tool Claude Code to prevent excessive use and account sharing by a small group of power users. Starting August 28, the limits will apply to subscribers of its $20-per-month Pro plan and the $100 and $200 Max plans. The company says some users have been running Claude Code continuously or reselling access, which violates its policies.
The weekly limits come in addition to existing five-hour usage caps, with separate restrictions for overall usage and for Anthropic’s most advanced AI model, Claude Opus 4. Max plan subscribers can purchase additional usage at regular API rates. According to Anthropic, the changes will affect less than 5% of subscribers, with most Pro users expected to have 40–80 hours of Sonnet 4 access each week, while $100 Max users get 140–280 hours of Sonnet 4 and 15–35 hours of Opus 4, and $200 Max users receive 240–480 hours of Sonnet 4 and 24–40 hours of Opus 4.
The update follows weeks of partial or major outages for Claude Code, likely driven by unusually high demand. Anthropic spokesperson Amie Rotherham said most users will not notice any difference, emphasizing the limits are designed to improve reliability and manage resources better.
Other AI coding tool providers, such as Anysphere’s Cursor and Replit, have also recently adjusted pricing and usage policies due to heavy demand. Anthropic acknowledges computational resource constraints but says it remains committed to supporting long-running use cases through alternative solutions in the future. These changes are expected to ensure more stable access to Claude Code for the broader user base while discouraging policy violations.
