"I thought it was 20x, it was 10x": Claude Max 20x becomes "Ultra" and loses its 5-hour limit

"I thought it was 20x, and it was only 10x? I honestly feel scammed right now." X user LegendYae replied that way on Oct. 30 to Anthropic's announcement that it was renaming its plans. The reply got 79 likes; the announcement itself passed 21,000.

Anthropic renamed Max 5x to "Max" and Max 20x to "Ultra." Prices stay $100 and $200 a month. Verified Ultra accounts lose the 5-hour limit and keep only the weekly limit, 10x Pro. Most existing subscribers get it starting that day; newer accounts keep a temporary limit until verified and get an email when it lifts. Anthropic's pricing page lists a $200 monthly API credit on Ultra ($100 on Max), and both plans include its top model, Fable, for up to half the weekly limit.

Mike Overell (mboverell), who leads product for Claude subscriptions, explained the naming. When the top plan launched in April 2025 it had a single 5-hour limit, 20x Pro, hence "Max 20x." When weekly limits were added they were set to 10x Pro while the 5-hour limit stayed at 20x. "I get that some new users assumed 20x applied to both limits. We could have done better here, and I'm sorry," he wrote. He said the rollout is staged to prevent fraud and abuse and there is no way to apply for verification yet.

Reactions split. kimmonismus wrote "5 hour limit gone for $200 Ultra. Anthropic is on a run" (1,100 likes). Others called it a downgrade, since the 20x 5-hour cap vanished and only the 10x weekly cap remains, and asked how 20x buyers will be compensated. The same day OpenCode said "you can now use your Claude subscription in OpenCode" (5,600 likes), and Peter Steinberger (steipete) argued for using your own harness rather than one companies can change at will (3,900 likes).