Claude renames its Max plans to Max and Ultra and removes the 5-hour limit for verified Ultra accounts

Background and pain point

The biggest complaint from heavy Claude subscribers, especially Claude Code users, is the rolling 5-hour limit: long jobs get throttled midway and have to wait for the window to reset. The higher tiers were also named by multiplier (Max 5x and Max 20x), which was not intuitive. On Oct 30 the official @claudeai account announced a rename and a limit change: Max 5x becomes Max and Max 20x becomes Ultra, still $100 and $200 per month, with nothing for existing subscribers to do.

What actually changed

The real change is in the limit structure. Per the official pricing page, Max gives 5x Pro usage with both the 5-hour and weekly limits in place, while Ultra gives 10x Pro weekly usage and drops the 5-hour limit for verified accounts, keeping only the weekly cap. Anthropic says the change starts that day with most existing subscribers; newer accounts keep a temporary limit until verified, to prevent fraud and abuse, and get an email when it is removed. Both tiers include monthly API credits ($100 on Max, $200 on Ultra), and Fable can use up to half the weekly limit.

Benchmarks

This is a subscription pricing change, not a model release, so there are no benchmarks. Anthropic has not published the verification criteria, the absolute weekly limits, or a timeline for lifting the limit for every existing subscriber.

How to use it

Former Max 20x subscribers are now on Ultra with no settings to change; watch for the email confirming the 5-hour limit is gone. If you run long Claude Code sessions or background agents, verified Ultra accounts now only need to watch the weekly cap, so track weekly usage to avoid running out midweek. Former Max 5x users keep the same limit structure. See claude.com/pricing and the help center for details.