The Claude Max plan after the Ultra split: one $100 tier, five times Pro

The Claude Max plan is one plan again, not two. As of November 2026, Max costs $100 a month and multiplies Pro's allowance by five on both the session and the weekly limit, while the old $200 Max 20x tier now goes by a new name, Ultra, with different limit rules.

That split matters for anyone still reading advice about "Max 5x or Max 20x". Here is what the Claude Max plan includes today, according to Anthropic's pricing page and the Max help article, both read on November 4, 2026.

What the Max plan includes

• Usage: five times Pro on the five-hour session limit and on the weekly limit. Anthropic gives multipliers, not message counts.
• Fable: included, for up to half of the weekly limit. Fable models wear the allowance down faster than other models, and they do not add to it. Everything shares one weekly budget.
• API credits: $100 a month for the Claude API, the Console Playground, Claude Managed Agents and the Claude Agent SDK.
• Priority access when traffic is high, and early access to new features.
• Everything in Pro, including Claude Code, Claude in Chrome and Microsoft 365, and scheduled tasks.

Billing is monthly only. The $100 figure is the web price; Anthropic says subscribing through a mobile app store can cost a different amount.

Where Ultra splits off

Anthropic's Ultra help article says the Max 20x plan "is now called the Ultra plan", and that existing subscribers moved across automatically at no price change. The allowance is described in a new way, though.

Verification is automatic and based on account and payment history. Until it clears, a new Ultra account has a temporary five-hour limit. Anthropic's tip: if Settings > Usage shows no Current session bar, the account is verified.

The API credit catch

The monthly credits look like a perk for coders. They are not one. Anthropic says they do not apply to interactive Claude Code in the terminal, IDE, desktop app or web, and they cannot buy usage credits once you hit a limit. They also need claiming: after seven days on the plan you link one Console organization, and anything unused expires at the end of the cycle.

For someone who lives in Claude Code, then, the value of Max is the bigger allowance and the Fable access. The credits only count if you also build on the API.

Who should pick Max

Anthropic pitches Max at people who work with Claude through the day. Its Claude Code help page suggests Max to Pro subscribers who consistently hit limits, and Ultra to Max subscribers in the same spot. A practical reading:

1. Pro's weekly limit stops you most weeks: Max.
2. Max still stops you, or long jobs keep pausing at the five-hour mark: Ultra.
3. Limits bite only on a few heavy days: stay on Pro and switch on usage credits, billed at API rates under a monthly cap you choose.

Plan changes are cheap to test. Upgrades take effect at once with unused time credited, and a downgrade waits until the period ends.

Checking before you switch

Settings > Usage and Claude Code's /usage command show today's position and nothing older. For the longer view, UsageAtlas keeps a history of your Claude windows. The free, open-source desktop tracker records the five-hour and weekly windows next to local Claude Code tokens and an estimated cost, and it can alert you when a window runs low. A month of that record shows whether the $80 step up from Pro would have paid off. Its dollar figures are estimates; Anthropic's invoice is the record.

One fair caveat: if you only touch Claude for a few big projects a year, a pay-as-you-go Console account may cost less than any subscription.