TL;DR On Ultra with a verified account, Claude Code no longer cuts you off every 5 hours: only the weekly limits stop you, one for all models and a separate one for Fable. Check in
/usagethat the 5-hour bar is gone, and if your status line showed it, fix the script so it doesn't paint a fake 0%.
Anthropic renamed its Max plans without touching the price: Max 5x is now Max ($100 a month) and Max 20x is now Ultra ($200). With the rename, verified Ultra accounts lose the 5-hour limit, starting on October 30, 2026 with most existing ones. The weekly limits stay as they were, and they count what you spend in Claude and in Claude Code together.
What changes on each plan
| Pro | Max (formerly Max 5x) | Verified Ultra (formerly Max 20x) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5-hour limit | Yes | Yes | No |
| Weekly limit, all models | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Separate weekly limit for Fable | Yes | Yes | |
| Allowance to finish the step (wrap-up) | Once a week | Every time you hit the 5-hour limit | Doesn't apply |
| Usage credits kick in at | The 5-hour or the weekly limit | The 5-hour limit or a weekly one | A weekly limit |
This is what Ultra shows in /usage and in the app's usage panel: two weekly bars, "all models" and "Fable", each with its reset day and time, and no 5-hour bar. The weekly reset is a fixed time Anthropic assigns to your account; it doesn't depend on when you start working.
What stops happening in Claude Code
- The mid-afternoon cutoff.
You've hit your 5-hour limitno longer shows up, and neither does waiting to carry on by itself after that reset. What can stop you is a weekly limit, and that one renews on its day, not in hours. - The allowance to finish the step. The wrap-up allowance is tied to the 5-hour limit, so on verified Ultra it doesn't apply.
- The window other warnings are measured against. The "Resume this conversation?" dialog works out its percentage against your 5-hour window, and on verified Ultra that window doesn't exist.
What your status line receives
If your status line shows the 5-hour window's percentage, on Ultra it can go blank or lie to you. The docs say each window in rate_limits can be missing on its own. On my verified Ultra account, after a reply, the whole object was missing:
claude --settings '{"statusLine":{"type":"command","command":"cat > /tmp/statusline.json; echo ok"}}'
python3 -c "import json; print(json.dumps(json.load(open('/tmp/statusline.json')).get('rate_limits'), indent=2))"
null
A script that reads the field with a // 0 fallback paints 5h: 0% instead of nothing. That 0% isn't headroom: there's no window at all.
How to get it right
1. Check that your account has lost the bar
Run /usage in Claude Code or open the app's usage panel. If the 5-hour bar is still there, your Ultra account isn't verified yet: recent sign-ups keep a temporary 5-hour limit, with Max's wrap-up, until they're verified, and Anthropic emails you when it lifts it.
2. Stop the status line from inventing a 0%
Read each window with // empty and skip the one that doesn't arrive:
#!/bin/bash
input=$(cat)
five=$(echo "$input" | jq -r '.rate_limits.five_hour.used_percentage // empty')
week=$(echo "$input" | jq -r '.rate_limits.seven_day.used_percentage // empty')
out=""
[ -n "$five" ] && out="5h: ${five%.*}%"
[ -n "$week" ] && out="${out:+$out }7d: ${week%.*}%"
echo "$out"
3. Pace the week yourself
With no 5-hour cutoff, a long day with lots of agents can eat a big share of the week with nothing to stop you. /usage tells you which skill, MCP server or subagent is eating it, and the background cost is the usual one: every turn resends the whole conversation.
What doesn't change
- The weekly limits are the same, shared across Claude and Claude Code in the terminal and in your IDE.
- When you hit a weekly limit, usage credits are what let you keep going. The monthly API credits that come with Ultra don't work in Claude Code or the apps.
- Pro and Max keep the 5-hour window and the weekly cap as they worked before. If you're torn between plans, which plan you really need.
Official docs: Use Claude Code with your Pro, Max, or Ultra plan · Usage limit best practices
Requirements
- An Ultra plan with a verified account. The bars and the status line
nullcome from my account, on November 4, 2026.
