Anthropic sued for $200, and the only thing hitting 20x is the bill 🧾

Anthropic was hit with a proposed class action on June 15 over its Claude Max subscription tiers, with a paying customer alleging that the advertised usage boosts failed to materialize under hidden limits. The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California by plaintiff Karl Kahn, a Washington-based user, and targets the $100 Max 5x and $200 Max 20x plans, which are marketed as delivering five times and 20 times the usage of Anthropic's $20 per month Pro plan. The filing seeks refunds and damages on behalf of all Max subscribers since the tiers launched in April 2025.

According to the lawsuit, Kahn originally subscribed to Claude Pro in June 2025, upgraded to Max 5x in January, and moved to Max 20x in April. He alleges that during a single five-hour coding session, he consumed 15% of his weekly quota, a pace he argues made the promised 20x usage over Pro impossible to achieve. The complaint focuses on how Anthropic structures its usage caps, which reset on five-hour rolling windows and are then subject to a separate weekly limit that Kahn says was not clearly disclosed. It also alleges that Anthropic did not clearly explain how usage is measured, leaving subscribers unable to determine whether they were receiving the access promised under the Max plans. The filing further states that Kahn at times purchased additional usage after reaching plan limits, and that he overpaid for both subscriptions.

Kahn is represented by Vaca Daffan LLP Founding Partner Kati Daffan, who framed the case in consumer protection terms. "This is a really good type of case for a class action, because the law is very clear that companies have to be honest about their advertising and marketing," Daffan told Decrypt. "If they're not, they can be held liable, need to change their ways, and refund money to people. Civil actions like this are brought every day against companies that misrepresent something about their product or service." Anthropic declined to comment on the lawsuit.

The dispute traces back to weekly caps Anthropic introduced in late August 2025 after heavy users ran Claude Code almost continuously; the company said the change would affect fewer than 5% of subscribers. The pressure on fixed-price AI tiers has been visible elsewhere in the market, with one enterprise client reportedly running up a $500 million bill in a single month. Separately, the Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI is considering price cuts for developers and enterprises in anticipation of similar moves by Anthropic, with both companies having filed confidentially for IPOs this month and neither currently turning a profit. "I think we'll have a lot of ways we can help people get more value for less spend," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said at a recent event, according to the Wall Street Journal. Anthropic is also contending with an AI ownership dispute tied to the Trump administration while preparing for its planned public listing.