What the plan renaming means
Anthropic has changed the names of its paid Claude plans for individual users. The plan previously called Max 5x is now Max, while Max 20x has been renamed Ultra. The change does not, by itself, alter the plans’ prices: Max is listed at $100 per month and Ultra at $200 per month. Anthropic’s help documentation says Max is available for $100 a month when purchased on the web; mobile platform pricing may differ.
Existing subscribers do not need to take action to change the plan names. The practical change for Ultra users is separate from the rebranding: verified Ultra accounts no longer have the five-hour session limit. That does not make Ultra unlimited, because weekly usage limits remain, and Anthropic says it may apply additional limits to manage capacity and ensure fair access.
Claude plan names and reported prices
The former and current names, along with the reported monthly prices. Mobile prices may differ by platform.
| Former name | Current name | Monthly price (USD) | Usage change described |
|---|---|---|---|
| Max 5x | Max | 100 | The name changes; Max retains usage limits. |
| Max 20x | Ultra | 200 | Verified accounts no longer have the five-hour session limit; weekly limits remain. |
The five-hour limit and account verification
The main usage change applies to verified Ultra accounts: they do not see the five-hour session limit. Anthropic’s help guidance distinguishes these accounts from Ultra accounts that have not yet been verified. Unverified accounts may temporarily retain the session limit while the verification process is pending. The available documentation does not specify how long verification takes for an individual account.
Anthropic says account verification is intended to help prevent fraud and abuse. It is not the same thing as verifying a phone number during sign-up. To check the displayed usage status, users can open Settings > Usage. Anthropic’s guidance says verified Ultra accounts will not see a five-hour session limit there; the presence or absence of a usage indicator should be interpreted in light of the account’s current status and the information shown in the account interface.
Why session windows can affect long-running work
A five-hour usage window can affect work that involves many stages, such as drafting a long report, iterating on code, or asking an AI agent to perform a sequence of connected tasks. If an account reaches its session limit before the work is complete, the user may have to pause, resume later, or reorganize the task. This can disrupt a workflow, particularly when later steps depend on context established earlier.
Removing the session limit for verified Ultra accounts changes that timing constraint: users can continue within the applicable weekly allocation rather than waiting for the five-hour window to reset. It does not guarantee that a task will finish in one uninterrupted run. The available usage still depends on the account’s weekly limits and may also be affected by the model, conversation length, attachments, tools, and other factors that Anthropic lists as affecting usage.
Planning work and managing usage
For Ultra users whose accounts have been verified, the change may make it easier to schedule longer periods of work without planning around a five-hour reset. That can be useful when a task is best handled as a connected sequence, but it does not establish that the same amount of work will cost less or that more tasks can always be completed in a week. The weekly allocation remains the overall constraint, and consumption varies with how Claude is used.
A practical way to assess whether the change matters for a particular workflow is to review usage in Settings > Usage and compare it with the weekly reset information shown for the account. Anthropic’s guidance notes that message length, attachments, conversation length, model choice, tool use, and multi-step tasks can all affect usage. These factors make a fixed number of messages an unreliable way to estimate how much work a plan will support.
Weekly limits and other restrictions
The removal of the five-hour session limit for verified Ultra accounts does not remove weekly usage limits. Anthropic’s documentation says weekly limits apply across models, with a separate weekly limit for Fable where that feature is included. The weekly reset time is assigned to the account and can be viewed in usage settings; it is not necessarily tied to the moment a user begins a particular task.
Anthropic also says that additional usage limits may apply to manage capacity and provide fair access. Limits can vary with usage patterns and features, and the company does not guarantee uninterrupted service. Therefore, the announcement should be understood as removing one specific time-based restriction for verified Ultra accounts—not as a promise of unlimited use, uninterrupted availability, or a fixed quantity of messages.
Check your Ultra usage status
Use the account’s usage settings to review the limits and reset information that apply to you.
- 01Sign in to Claude.
- 02Open Settings > Usage.
- 03Review the usage information displayed for your account, including any session and weekly limits.
- 04If the five-hour session limit is still shown, the account may not yet have been verified or the change may not yet be reflected in the account interface. Weekly limits remain applicable.
Open questions
- The available documentation does not specify how long verification takes for an individual Ultra account.
- The timing and account-by-account availability of the change may depend on verification status; the five-hour limit should not be described as removed for every Ultra account.
- The change concerns the session limit. It does not establish a fixed quantity of messages or guarantee uninterrupted access; weekly and other applicable limits remain.
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