About Claude's Max Plan Usage

Yes. The Max plan offers substantially higher usage compared to our Pro plan. The Max plan is available in two tiers, offering flexible usage levels that grow with you:

The number of messages you can send will vary based on the length of your messages, including the size of files you attach, and length of current conversation. Your message limit will reset every 5 hours. We call these 5-hour segments a “session” and they start with your first message to Claude. If your conversations are relatively short, with the Max plan at 5x more usage, you can expect to send at least 225 messages every 5 hours, and with the Max plan at 20x more usage, at least 900 messages every 5 hours, often more depending on message length, conversation length, and Claude's current capacity. We will provide a warning when you have a limited number of messages remaining.

While Max plans offer expanded message limits, the context window size remains at 200K across all plans. This means you can send more messages with Max, but the length of individual chats has the same context window limit as other plans.

Please note that if you exceed 50 sessions per month, we may limit your access to Claude. The 50 sessions guideline is not a strict cut-off – rather, it's a flexible benchmark that allows us to limit excessive usage case-by-case and only when necessary, to ensure fair access for all Max subscribers. Most users won't approach this limit – 50 sessions equals up to 250 hours of usage monthly – and we will provide a warning if you have a limited number of sessions remaining.

Here are some tips to maximize your usage:

Refer to our Usage Limit Best Practices for more guidance on using your Max capacity efficiently.

A "session" starts with your first message to Claude and lasts for 5 hours. Any messages you send within that 5-hour window count as part of the same session, not as separate sessions. If you send one message now and come back 4 hours later to continue the conversation (in the same chat or a different one), that's still just one session.

The session counter only resets after the 5-hour period from when your first message began. When you start a new conversation after that 5-hour window, that begins a new session.

Max plan users have access to use Claude Code in their terminal. Usage limits apply across both Claude and Claude Code. Read more about using Claude Code with your Max Plan.

This article explains how rate limits work when using Research.