If you have been hitting a digital brick wall with Claude Code lately, you are not alone. Since Monday, users, especially those shelling out $200 a month for the “Max” plan, have found themselves slapped with a mysterious message: “Claude usage limit reached.” No prior warning, no clear breakdown, just… a timeout and a vague reset clock.
Naturally, the internet did what it does best: complain, question, and spiral into speculation. Over on Claude’s GitHub, users are sounding off, wondering if they have been secretly downgraded or if the system’s tracking went haywire. One user claimed they hit a supposed 900-message cap within just 30 minutes, and they are not buying it.
When asked, Anthropic gave a classic tech company non-answer: Yes, we know. No, we are not telling you more. Their official statement? “We are aware some Claude Code users are experiencing slower response times, and we are working to resolve these issues.” Comforting.
But for developers in the trenches, this is more than just a hiccup; it is a full stop. One user told TechCrunch their project hit the brakes entirely. They tried Gemini. They tried Kimi. But Claude’s coding chops? Still unmatched.
To make matters worse, Anthropic’s status page insists everything is fine, six logged issues in four days, but still claims 100% uptime. The math’s not matching.
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At the root of the mess is Anthropic’s confusing tiered pricing. While it sounds simple (Free < Pro < Max), the limits shift based on “demand” and never come with guaranteed access. That $200 Max plan? It suggests 20x more usage than Pro, which offers 5x the Free plan… but none of it is set in stone. Users say this makes it impossible to plan, especially if you’re trying to build anything remotely serious.
One Max-tier user admitted the plan lets him rack up over $1,000 worth of API calls in a single day. So sure, he gets why Anthropic might be clamping down. But all he’s asking for is a heads-up. “Just be transparent,” he said. “The lack of communication just causes people to lose confidence in them.” Power users are hitting limits. Trust is hitting new lows. And Claude Code? It might be running hot, but it is also running silently.
