Anthropic Introduces Weekly Rate Limits for Claude AI to Manage Excessive Usage
Anthropic announces weekly usage limits for Claude AI effective August 28 to manage excessive utilizations by a minority of users.
Key Points
- • New weekly rate limits for Claude AI set to begin on August 28.
- • Limitations aim to alleviate high operational costs caused by excessive use, especially of Claude Code.
- • Affected subscription tiers include $20 Pro, $100 Max, and $200 Max plans; less than 5% of users expected to be impacted.
- • Max plan users can buy additional usage beyond set limits.
Anthropic has announced a new set of weekly usage limits for its Claude AI service, particularly targeting its Claude Code feature, which has seen high levels of continuous utilization by a minority of users. The implementation of these limits, effective August 28, comes in response to operational challenges resulting from heavy usage that has caused service instability and increased costs for the company.
The new weekly limits will affect all users of Claude across different subscription tiers: the $20 Pro plan, the $100 Max plan, and the $200 Max plan. These measures aim to manage excessive demands particularly from a small subset of subscribers who have reportedly been running Claude Code around the clock. Current usage criteria that reset every five hours will still apply alongside the new weekly caps that will reset every seven days. Users exceeding these new limits will also have the option to purchase additional access at standard API rates, which is a deviation from the norm for most users under these plans, according to company statements.
Amie Rotherham, an Anthropic spokesperson, described the measures as "necessary to maintain service reliability," stating that the changes are unlikely to impact the majority of users. The company estimates that less than 5% of subscribers will face limitations as a result of these changes. Notably, current data indicates that users of the $200 Max plan may receive about six times more usage than the $20 Pro plan, contradicting earlier figures that indicated a 20x discrepancy, highlighting the necessity for more precise metrics to gauge usage effectively.
Anthropic's measures align with broader industry trends as other competitors have adjusted their pricing structures in response to escalating demand for AI coding tools. The service disruptions experienced since the launch of Claude Code have prompted the company to seek long-term solutions to balance high demand with service stability.