Anthropic has rebranded its $200-per-month Claude Max 20x subscription as Claude Ultra, making clear that the plan’s weekly usage allowance is 10 times that of Claude Pro—not 20 times. The company says the change does not reduce existing weekly limits; instead, it addresses a naming issue tied to how the former Max tier was originally measured.
- Claude Max, previously Max 5x, costs $100 per month and provides five times Pro-level capacity over both five-hour windows and a week.
- Claude Ultra, previously Max 20x, costs $200 per month and provides 10 times Pro-level capacity per week. Verified accounts are no longer subject to a five-hour cap.
When Max 20x launched in April 2025, its 20x label referred to capacity within a five-hour usage window. Anthropic subsequently added weekly limits, setting the higher tier’s weekly capacity at 10 times the Pro plan while retaining the Max 20x branding.
Mike Overell, who leads Claude subscription products, acknowledged that the presentation could have misled customers and apologized for the lack of clarity. The rename therefore does not signal a newly imposed cut in weekly access, but it highlights that a 20x weekly allowance was never available under the former plan.
The removal of five-hour throttling applies only to verified Ultra accounts. Anthropic determines verification automatically from account and payment history; accounts that have not yet been verified continue to face the shorter usage-window restriction temporarily.
Ultra remains a capped subscription rather than an unlimited one. Its weekly allowance covers both standard Claude chats and activity in Claude Code, while Fable has a separate limit.
Both paid tiers now include monthly Claude API credits: $100 with Max and $200 with Ultra. Those credits apply to the Claude API and cannot extend Claude or Claude Code subscription usage after the included limits have been reached. Separate usage credits are available for that purpose at an additional charge.
For verified Ultra subscribers, the practical change is greater flexibility in when they consume their allowance, rather than more total weekly capacity. The key ceiling remains 10 times Pro-level weekly usage at the $200 monthly tier.
