Claude Ultra goes live: The 5-hour limit is gone, the weekly limit remains, and the 10x vs. 20x debate starts

On October 30, Anthropic changed the names of Claude's subscription plans. Max 5x became Max, and Max 20x became Ultra. Prices did not change: Max is still $100 per month, and Ultra is still $200 per month. The news comes from TestingCatalog and the official Claude account. The official statement says existing subscribers do not need to do anything.

On the same day, Anthropic also announced that it is removing Ultra's 5-hour usage limit. Note that this change applies only to verified Ultra accounts, starting with most existing subscribers. New accounts will keep a temporary limit until verification is complete. The official explanation is to prevent fraud and abuse. Users will be notified by email after verification is approved.

Weekly limits have not been removed. The official wording is 'weekly limits remain unchanged.' The pricing page also states it clearly: Ultra gets 10 times Pro's weekly usage and has no 5-hour limit; Max gets 5 times Pro's usage and is limited every 5 hours and weekly. Max includes $100 of monthly API credit, and Ultra includes $200. Free, Pro, Max, and Ultra are all listed on the pricing page; Pro is $20 per month, with a discount for annual billing.

The renaming itself is not complicated; the numbers are. The old Max 20x is now called Ultra, but the pricing page says Ultra's weekly usage is 10 times Pro's. In TestingCatalog's comments, someone directly asks why Ultra shows 10x instead of 20x. Others ask whether the weekly limit is still in place now that the 5-hour limit is gone. Another user says the 5-hour cap was the main reason he had not considered Ultra before, and now that it is removed, he needs to recalculate.

A more practical reminder comes from the comments. One user says the weekly limit is unchanged, and it is now the only brake. People running long tasks can set /model to opusplan, so Opus only does planning and Sonnet writes code; otherwise, a single overnight task could consume most of the weekly quota. This is based on user experience, not official advice, but it is useful for heavy Claude Code users. Claude Code shares the same quota as web, desktop, and mobile chat, and the official FAQ confirms this.

So this update can be seen on two levels. The renaming is packaging; removing the 5-hour limit is a product change. For people who write code for long stretches and run agents every day, the disappearance of the 5-hour wall will directly change their usage rhythm. But the weekly limit remains; the wall has not disappeared, it has just moved. For ordinary users, the difference between Free and Pro is more about quota and features; for teams, being able to predict costs still matters more than the name.

The comments are still asking whether the next name will be Mega. Someone has already come up with one for Anthropic: Claude Ultra Pro Max.