Anthropic updates Claude Code limits: users claim harm

Anthropic has announced an update to the usage limits for the development tool Claude Code. According to the official announcement, starting from mid-September, the weekly quota for paid plans will be permanently increased by 25 percent. On the face of it, this is good news for developers, but a careful reading of the fine print reveals a more complex reality that actually harms the current situation of the users.

Actual decrease

To understand the gap between the announcement and reality, one needs to look at the context. In recent months, Claude users enjoyed a benefit that gave them a generous 50 percent addition to the original base limits.

Now, Anthropic is updating the base quota and increasing it by 25% for users on Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans. While this seems like good news, the company is simultaneously canceling the temporary 50 percent benefit, which had been extended until mid-September. A simple mathematical calculation shows that the bottom line for users is a cut of 17 percent in the new quota compared to what they receive today.

This cut will be felt by users, especially in light of data published by Anthropic itself, according to which developers use Claude Code for about 20 hours a week on average, and it is already generating an annual revenue rate of over 2.5 billion dollars for the company.

Anthropic's usage calculation and limitation system is not based on the number of prompts. The system combines two mechanisms: a five-hour time window that is constantly reset gradually, and a completely separate weekly usage cap. How quickly you burn through your quota depends on several variables, such as the model chosen, the complexity of the tasks, and the actual computing power required to complete them.