Anthropic has renamed the paid plans for its Claude chatbot: Max 5x is now simply called Max, and Max 20x is now called Ultra. Prices have not changed, but for the most expensive plan, the company is gradually removing the five-hour limit that previously forced users to take breaks in their work.
Anthropic announced this on Friday, October 30, on Claude’s official X accountand sent emails to subscribers. The new names have already appeared on the pricing page.
“We’re removing the five-hour limit for verified Ultra accounts—effective today for most current subscribers. Newer accounts will retain the temporary limit until they are verified: this helps us prevent fraud and abuse. You’ll receive an email when the limit is lifted. Weekly limits remain unchanged.”
— the company said in a statement
What’s Changing
- Max (formerly Max 5x) — $100 per month. Five times more data than the base Pro plan, both per five-hour window and per week. Plus $100 per month in API credits (application programming interface for developers).
- Ultra (formerly Max 20x) — $200 per month. No five-hour limit for verified accounts; weekly quota is 10 times larger than that of Pro; $200 per month in API credits.
- The Pro plan remains the same—$20 per month, or $17 per month if you pay annually.
Current subscribers don’t need to do anything: according to the company, the price, features, billing date, and weekly limit remain the same.
Why did “20x” disappear from the name?
The multiplier in the title referred not to the total available amount, but only to a five-hour window. As Claude, the head of subscriptions (account @mboverell), explained on X, the most expensive plan was launched in April 2025 with a single, five-hour limit, and it was 20 times higher than that of the Pro plan. Anthropic added weekly limits in August 2025, and for this plan, the weekly quota is 10 times the Pro quota.
So “20x” had long since ceased to reflect how much could actually be used in a week. This discrepancy became the subject of a dispute: in June 2026, a subscriber filed a lawsuit in California seeking class-action status. According to the plaintiff, the $200 plan offered approximately 6–8 times more data than the Pro plan, not 20 times. This is the position of one of the parties to the dispute.
What does this mean in practice?
For Ultra users, the main change is the freedom to allocate their weekly quota. Previously, even with a large weekly quota, users had to wait for the five-hour window to reset. Now, a significant portion of the weekly quota can be used, for example, in a single long workday.
The Ultra plan is not unlimited: the weekly limit remains in effect. The five-hour window remains in place for the Max plan.
The company did not specify the date by which the limit will be lifted for all accounts. It also did not specify exactly how the verification process works or whether it involves the same identity verification using an ID document and a selfie that Anthropic has been conducting in certain cases via the Persona service since April 2026, as reported by Business Today.
And here’s a tip on digital hygiene: Current subscribers don’t need to do anything, so emails or messages asking you to “confirm your upgrade to Ultra,” pay an additional fee, or enter your card information should be treated as potential phishing attempts. Check your plan and restriction status only in your Claude account settings, not via links in emails.
Photo: Sanket Mishra / Unsplash (Unsplash license). The image shows the Max plan card on Claude’s pricing page in May 2026, before the name change.