Anthropic hit with class action over Claude Max caps—$200 plans allegedly hit 15% wall in 5 hours ⚖️

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 and seeks refunds for subscribers since the plans launched in April 2025.

Plaintiff Karl Kahn, based in Washington, reportedly upgraded to the top Max 20x tier for heavy coding work and said the limits hit almost immediately. According to the filing, one five-hour session consumed 15% of his weekly quota, a pace he argues made the promised 20x boost over the $20 Pro plan impossible to reach. The suit centers on how Anthropic stacks its caps, with usage resetting on five-hour rolling windows while a separate weekly limit caps total activity, and Kahn says neither cap was clear enough to track.

The complaint seeks class status for everyone who bought Max 5x or Max 20x since launch and asks for refunds and damages under consumer protection law. Anthropic declined to comment. The company added the weekly caps in late August 2025 after power users ran Claude Code almost continuously, resetting the limits every seven days and saying the change would touch fewer than 5% of subscribers. Frustration has built since then, with one enterprise client reportedly running up a $500 million bill in a single month, and one user observing that "whenever I hit limits, I buy extra usage. Cost way less than Max." The case lands while Anthropic eyes a planned public listing and fights other battles, including an AI ownership dispute tied to the Trump administration.