Key problem: Anthropic has never published exact token limits for subscribers. Users cannot predict or plan their usage. Only API customers know exactly what they pay.
Source: The Register, gHacks • March 26-27, 2026
Anthropic改变了什么
5-hour session limits now drain faster during peak
Peak hours: 05:00–11:00 PT / 13:00–19:00 GMT
During peak: tokens counted at accelerated rate
Example: 1 hour actual use = 2-3 hours session allowance burned
Weekly limits: unchanged
Announced by Thariq Shihipar (Anthropic technical team) on X
Quote: "To manage growing demand for Claude we're adjusting our five hour session limits for free/Pro/Max subs during peak hours"
他们悄无声息地做了这件事
No announcement before the change went live
Users reported "rate limit bug" for days
Community assumed it was a glitch
Anthropic only acknowledged it after widespread complaints
Still no exact token thresholds published
Dashboard shows progress bar — but not actual numbers
社区反应
r/ClaudeAI
“So the 'rate limit bug' was actually Anthropic quietly making your limits drain faster during peak hours.”
Reddit user
“Paying $200/month for Max 20x and hitting limits faster than before. This is not what I signed up for.”
Hacker News
“Classic ISP throttling behavior. Sell unlimited, then quietly add limits when demand grows.”
😡
r/ClaudeAI reaction
Days
Before Anthropic acknowledged
$200
Max plan users hardest hit
不透明问题
Anthropic has never published exact token limits
Usage depends on: conversation length, complexity, features, model
No way to predict or plan usage in advance
Dashboard: progress bar only — no actual numbers
API users: full transparency — exact token counts, published rates
Subscribers: paying flat fee for "mystery usage"
OpenAI & Google publish rate limits clearly — Anthropic does not
为什么会这样?
Anthropic under massive capacity strain
Claude Code + Opus 4.6 drove usage surge Feb-Mar 2026
Demand growing faster than infrastructure
Thariq Shihipar: "We're continuing to invest in scaling efficiently"
No timeline for lifting restrictions
Meanwhile: raised $3.5B at $61.5B valuation in 2024
Question: why throttle paying users instead of investing in capacity?
谁受影响最大
Max 20x ($200/mo)
Worst value for money
Max 5x ($100/mo)
Heavily affected
Pro ($20/mo)
Most impacted %
Free
Affected
API
NOT affected
Heaviest users hit hardest: background tasks, long context, Claude Code sessions, business-hours developers — exactly the people paying the most.
如何应对
Shift heavy work to off-peak: after 11:00 PT / 19:00 GMT
Use API instead of subscription for predictable costs
Shorter conversations = less token burn per session
Monitor the dashboard progress bar regularly
Consider GLM-5.1 ($1/M tokens, MIT open source) for cost-sensitive high-volume tasks
Schedule cron jobs and background agents for night / weekend
更大的格局
$200
Max套餐 — 不透明限制
0
已公开的Token限制
$3.5B
2024年融资
API
唯一透明选择
这是透明度问题，而不仅仅是容量问题。 每月支付$200的用户应该获得明确的使用条款。 OpenAI和Google都明确公布了速率限制。 Anthropic的不透明模式越来越站不住脚 — and 如果他们悄悄做了一次，还有什么其他变化没有通知用户？
结论： Until Anthropic公开 exact token limits per plan, the Max subscription is a gamble. API是唯一能让你知道自己实际获得什么的方式。