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Claude's $200 plan is now Ultra, and verified accounts lose the 5-hour limit

SummaryAnthropic renamed its Max plans on October 30: Max 5x is now Max at $100 a month, and Max 20x is now Ultra at $200. Verified Ultra accounts no longer have a 5-hour usage window. Weekly limits stay the same.

· MODEL Editors · 2 min read

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MODEL news card headlined: Claude's $200 plan is now Ultra, with no 5-hour limit (if verified). Four boxes: Max, was Max 5x, still $100 a month, 5x Pro usage every 5 hours and every week, $100 a month in API credits; Ultra, was Max 20x, still $200 a month, 10x Pro weekly usage, $200 a month in API credits; No 5-hr, no 5-hour limit on Ultra for verified accounts, starting with most existing subscribers; Same, weekly limits unchanged, newer accounts keep a temporary 5-hour limit until verified. A black bar reads: The catch: weekly caps still apply, and Anthropic says it may limit usage in other ways. Newer Ultra accounts keep the 5-hour limit until verified. You'll get an email when it lifts. Footer: Source: @claudeai on X and claude.com/pricing, Oct 30, 2026. Not tested by MODEL. Watermark: MODEL, readmodelmag.com.
Anthropic's announcement and pricing page, our summary. Illustration by MODEL. Original. Image source.

On Friday, October 30, Anthropic's Claude account announced on X that it is renaming its two Max plans. Max 5x is now just Max, and Max 20x is now Ultra. Prices don't change: Max is still $100 a month and Ultra is still $200. Anthropic says existing subscribers don't need to do anything.

What changed. The bigger news is the limit. Anthropic says it is "removing the 5-hour limit for verified Ultra accounts, starting today with most existing subscribers." Claude plans normally meter usage in a rolling five-hour window plus a weekly cap. Verified Ultra accounts now only have the weekly cap.

What each plan includes, per claude.com/pricing (read Oct 30):

  • Max ($100/month): 5x Pro usage every 5 hours and every week, Fable for up to half your weekly limit, $100 a month in API credits for the Claude Platform, and priority access at busy times.
  • Ultra ($200/month): everything in Max, plus no 5-hour limit for verified accounts, 10x Pro usage every week, and $200 a month in API credits.

Who it's for. People who run Claude or Claude Code for long stretches and keep hitting the five-hour wall mid-task. Usage across Claude on web, desktop, mobile and Claude Code draws from the same pool, according to Anthropic's pricing FAQ.

The caveats. Weekly limits are unchanged, so heavy users can still run out before the week resets. Newer accounts keep a temporary 5-hour limit until they're verified, which Anthropic says helps prevent fraud and abuse; you'll get an email when it's removed. Anthropic doesn't say publicly how verification works or how long it takes. Its pricing page also says it may limit usage in other ways, "such as weekly and monthly caps or model and feature usage," at its discretion.

Our take. If the five-hour window is what stops you, and you're already paying $200, this is a straight upgrade at no extra cost. If you mostly hit the weekly cap, nothing changes for you. MODEL has not tested the new limits. This summary is based on Anthropic's X post and pricing page, read October 30, 2026.

Sources

  1. Claude on X: renaming the Max plans (Oct 30, 2026)

    Anthropic

  2. Claude pricing

    Anthropic

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