Anthropic renamed its top Claude subscriptions on October 30, turning Max 5x into Max and Max 20x into Ultra, and removed the rolling five-hour usage limit for verified Ultra accounts. Prices are unchanged at $100 a month for Max and $200 a month for Ultra, existing subscribers need take no action, and weekly limits stay exactly where they were, with Ultra keeping ten times the weekly usage of the Pro plan.
What actually changed
The change is a rename plus one real limit removal. Max 5x becomes Max at $100 a month, and Max 20x becomes Ultra at $200 a month, both sold as monthly subscriptions only. Anthropic says subscribers do not need to do anything: the new names apply automatically, and the price on each tier stays the same as before.
The rename clears up confusion about what the old numbers meant. The 20x figure applied to the five-hour session window, not the week: Ultra’s weekly allowance is ten times Pro usage, while Max keeps five times Pro usage in both windows. Comparisons should use the figures, not old labels, and Claude’s pricing explained gives wider context for the tiers.
The tiers also carry monthly API credits: $100 for Max and $200 for Ultra, matching their subscription prices. That detail matters for developers who mix chat and API use, since the credit offsets part of the subscription for API work. It does not change the weekly usage caps, which remain the binding limit for heavy chat use.
The limit that is gone, and the one that stays
Under the old model, Ultra subscribers received their allowance inside a rolling five-hour window, and once it was spent, they waited for it to roll over. For verified Ultra accounts, that session cap is now gone, starting with most subscribers. Users can run long sessions without watching a five-hour clock, working at their pace until the weekly allowance runs out.
What has not changed is the weekly ceiling. Ultra still offers ten times the Pro plan’s usage per week, and Max still offers five times, so Ultra is not becoming unlimited. Anthropic says it may add other limits to manage capacity, but the weekly caps themselves are untouched, which keeps the top tier generous without removing the guardrail entirely.
Who gets it, and when
Most existing Ultra subscribers lose the five-hour limit from October 30, according to Anthropic. Newer accounts keep a temporary five-hour limit until they are verified, a step the company says helps prevent fraud and abuse. Those users will receive an email when the restriction is removed, at which point the session window disappears for them too.
The Max tier sees no change beyond its name. Subscribers on the $100 plan still live with both the five-hour window and the weekly limit, exactly as before. The announcement covers Ultra specifically, so anyone on Max who wants the longer sessions needs to move up to Ultra rather than wait for the change to reach their plan.
Why It Matters
For Claude’s heaviest users, the five-hour window was the visible friction in the top tier: a long coding or research session could stall while the window reset. Removing it makes Ultra behave more like the premium product its $200 price promises, especially for professionals running Claude for hours. The weekly cap still binds, so this is about pacing, not volume.
The move sharpens the contest at the top of the consumer AI market, where leading chatbots are raising and reshaping their paid tiers. OpenAI, for example, recently doubled its Pro limits, and OpenAI’s Pro changes show rivals competing on how much heavy users can do. For subscribers, the question is now simpler: Max for steady use, Ultra for long sessions.
Background
Max 5x and Max 20x were the previous names for Claude’s two highest individual tiers, and existing subscribers move over automatically with no action and no price change.
Source: Claude announcement and CryptoBriefing report
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