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Claude Ultra drops the five-hour limit for verified accounts

Woman working on a laptop in a dark office at night
ⓘ Oktay Köseoğlu / Pexels
Verified Claude Ultra accounts no longer have to pause after five hours, but the weekly limit still applies (symbolic image).
Anthropic has renamed its two top Claude plans. Max 5x is now Max and Max 20x is now Ultra, with prices unchanged at $100 and $200 a month. Verified Ultra accounts also lose the five-hour usage limit, though the weekly cap stays. Here is how to check whether your account already qualifies.
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Anthropic renamed its two highest Claude subscriptions on October 30. Max 5x is now simply Max, and Max 20x is now Ultra. "Max is still $100/month, and Ultra is still $200," the company wrote in its announcement on X. Existing subscribers do not need to do anything, since their plans switch to the new names automatically.

What actually changes with Ultra

The bigger change is the usage limit. Claude plans have worked with a rolling five-hour window, and anyone who used up that allowance had to wait for it to reset. Verified Ultra accounts no longer hit that cutoff. You can work with Claude for a full day without being forced to stop around midday. Anthropic says the change applies to most existing subscribers starting now.

The total amount of usage stays the same. Ultra still offers 10 times the weekly usage of Pro, and Fable, Anthropic's top model, has its own separate weekly limit, according to the Claude Help Center. If you burn through the weekly budget in two long days, you will have to wait for the weekly reset.

How to tell if your account is verified

There is no form to fill out. Anthropic verifies Ultra accounts automatically based on account and payment history, which is meant to prevent fraud. New accounts keep a temporary limit until verification is complete. The help page is explicit that "verifying your phone number at checkout is a separate step and doesn't remove this limit." To check, open Settings > Usage. If there is no Current session bar, your account is verified.

Who should upgrade

For most people, Pro at $20 a month is still enough, and it includes Opus 5.5 at no extra cost. Fable is not part of Pro, as we reported earlier, and Pro users can only access it by paying with usage credits. Max and Ultra include Fable for up to half of the weekly limit and, since October, come with monthly API credits worth $100 and $200. Ultra is only sold as a monthly subscription. The $200 price applies to subscriptions bought on the web, and pricing in the mobile apps may differ.

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> Expert reviews and news on laptops, smartphones and tech innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2026 10 > Claude Ultra drops the five-hour limit for verified accounts
Steffen Zahn, 2026-10-31 (Update: 2026-10-31)