1 week Ago By Benj Edwards
On Wednesday, Anthropic introduced a new $100- to $200-per-month subscription tier called Claude Max that offers expanded usage limits for its Claude AI assistant . The new plan arrives after many existing Claude subscribers complained of hitting rate limits frequently. "The top request from our most active users has been expanded Claude access," wrote Anthropic in a news release.
A brief stroll through user feedback on Reddit seems to confirm that sentiment, showing that many Claude users have been unhappy with Anthropic's usage limits over the past year—even on the Claude Pro plan, which costs $20 a month. One of the downsides of a relatively large context window with Claude (the amount of text it can process at once) has been that long conversations or inclusions of many reference documents (such as code files) fill up usage limits quickly. That's because each time the user adds to the conversation, the entire text of the conversation (including any attached documents) is fed back into the AI model again and re-evaluated.
But on the other hand, a large context window allows Claude to process more complex projects within each session. The new Max plan comes in two variations: a $100-per-month option that provides five times more usage than the $20 "Pro" plan, and a $200-per-month tier that offers 20 times more usage than Pro. Anthropic calls the higher tier "Maximum Flexibility" and targets "daily users who collaborate often with Claude for most tasks.
" Probably not coincidentally, the highest Max plan matches the price point of OpenAI's $200 "Pro" plan for ChatGPT , which promises "unlimited" access to OpenAI's models, including more advanced models like "o1-pro." OpenAI introduced this plan in December as a higher tier above its $20 " ChatGPT Plus " subscription, first introduced in February 2023. The pricing war between Anthropic and OpenAI reflects the resource-intensive nature of running state-of-the-art AI models.
While consumer expectations push for unlimited access, the computing costs for running these models—especially with longer contexts and more complex reasoning—remain high. Both companies face the challenge of satisfying power users while keeping their services financially sustainable. Other features of Claude Max Beyond higher usage limits, Claude Max subscribers will also reportedly receive priority access to unspecified new features and models as they roll out.
Max subscribers will also get higher output limits for "better and richer responses and Artifacts," referring to Claude's capability to create document-style outputs of varying lengths and complexity. Users who subscribe to Max will also receive "priority access during high traffic periods," suggesting Anthropic has implemented a tiered queue system that prioritizes its highest-paying customers during server congestion. Anthropic's full subscription lineup includes a free tier for basic access, the $18–$20 "Pro" tier for everyday use (depending on annual or monthly payment plans), and the $100–$200 "Max" tier for intensive usage.
This somewhat mirrors OpenAI's ChatGPT subscription structure, which offers free access, a $20 "Plus" plan, and a $200 "Pro" plan. Anthropic says the new Max plan is available immediately in all regions where Claude operates..
