Anthropic was hit with a proposed class action on June 15 over its Claude Max subscriptions, with a paying user alleging the advertised 5x and 20x usage boosts collapsed under hidden caps that throttled heavy work.
The complaint, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, targets the $100 Max 5x and $200 Max 20x tiers. It seeks refunds for subscribers since the plans launched.
What the Lawsuit Claims
Plaintiff Karl Kahn, based in Washington, reportedly upgraded to the top Max 20x tier for heavy coding work. He says the limits hit almost immediately.
One five-hour session consumed 15% of his weekly quota, according to the filing. That pace, he argues, made the promised 20x boost over the $20 Pro plan impossible to reach.
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The suit centers on how Anthropic stacks its caps. Usage resets on five-hour rolling windows, then a separate weekly limit caps total activity. Kahn says neither cap was clear enough to track.
Anthropic marketed the tiers as delivering five and 20 times the usage of Pro. The filing argues that math never held during sustained coding sessions.
The complaint seeks class status for everyone who bought Max 5x or Max 20x since the tiers launched in April 2025.
It asks for refunds and damages under consumer protection law. Anthropic declined to comment.
Why the Limits Keep Drawing Fire
Anthropic added the weekly caps in late August 2025 after power users ran Claude Code almost continuously. The limits reset every seven days. The company said the change would touch fewer than 5% of subscribers.
Frustration has built since then. One enterprise client ran up a $500 million bill in a single month, showing how fast intensive use scales.
“Now imagine what the Pro plan users face. But it helps us get better at prompting. And whenever I hit limits, I buy extra usage. Cost way less than Max,” one user observed.
The economics are unforgiving. AI inference stays expensive, so fixed-price “unlimited” tiers risk losses or weaker service for everyone. Hard caps are how providers ration scarce compute.
Repeated changes have also fueled questions about reliability among dependent users. The case lands while Anthropic eyes a planned public listing and fights other battles, including an AI ownership dispute tied to the Trump administration.
Most consumer suits like this settle with small payouts and clearer disclaimers rather than removed caps.
The coming weeks will show whether more Max subscribers join Kahn or whether Anthropic tightens its marketing language instead.