Issue 00 · Autumn 2026日本語 · RSS
AgentKoji

When You Hit Claude Code's Usage Limit

Claude Code on Pro and Max has a five-hour session limit and a weekly limit. This guide covers how they work, how to check them, and how to keep working when you hit one.

TL;DR

  • "You've hit your session limit" isn't an outage; it's your Pro or Max plan's usage limit.
  • Pro and Max have a session limit that resets every five hours and a weekly limit, both shared between Claude chat and Claude Code.
  • Session and weekly limits apply across all models, so switching models won't help; Opus and Sonnet limits apply only to that family.

On a Pro or Max plan, Claude Code can stop mid-task with “You’ve hit your session limit”. That is not an outage. It is your plan’s usage limit. This guide covers how the limits work, how to check what’s left, how to keep going, how to tell a limit from an error, and how to hit limits less often. For plan prices, see What Claude Code Really Costs.

How the limits work

Pro and Max have a session limit that resets every five hours and a weekly limit that resets once a week. Both are shared between Claude (chat) and Claude Code. Usage in chat also comes out of what Claude Code has left (source: https://support.claude.com/en/articles/11145838-use-claude-code-with-your-pro-or-max-plan, checked 2026-10-18).

How much you use depends on the length and complexity of your conversations, the features you use, the model you choose, and your effort setting. Plans have different allowances, but the help center does not give specific amounts (source: https://support.claude.com/en/articles/11647753-how-do-usage-and-length-limits-work, checked 2026-10-18).

The pricing page describes Max as “5x or 20x more usage than Pro”. Max 5x is five times Pro, and Max 20x is twenty times Pro. The Free plan does not include Claude Code. Prices can change, so check the official page before you subscribe (source: https://claude.com/pricing, checked 2026-10-18).

What you see when you hit a limit

The official error reference lists these messages:

You've hit your session limit · resets 3:45pm
You've hit your weekly limit · resets Mon 12:00am
You've hit your Opus limit · resets 3:45pm
You've hit your Sonnet limit · resets 3:45pm

The session and weekly limits are shared across all models. Switching models won’t bring access back. The Opus and Sonnet limits apply only to that model family, so switching to a model outside the family with /model lets you keep working (source: https://code.claude.com/docs/en/errors, checked 2026-10-18).

If you hit the session limit mid-response, you may see “Usage limit reached · wrapping up”, and Claude Code keeps going briefly to finish the step in progress. On Pro this applies once per weekly period. On Max it can apply each time you reach a session limit. It is rolling out gradually (source: https://support.claude.com/en/articles/11145838-use-claude-code-with-your-pro-or-max-plan, checked 2026-10-18).

How to check what’s left

/usage shows your plan limits, when they reset, and activity stats. On Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise, it also shows a breakdown of what counts against your limits. /cost and /stats are aliases for /usage. /status shows the version, model, and account (sources: https://code.claude.com/docs/en/commands and https://code.claude.com/docs/en/costs, checked 2026-10-18).

The breakdown is computed from local session history on that machine. Usage from other devices or claude.ai is not included. To keep the 5-hour and 7-day percentages on screen, see How to Set Up the Claude Code Status Line.

We checked the version in our test environment, running it in a temporary directory. npm view @anthropic-ai/claude-code version also returned 2.1.302.

npx -y @anthropic-ai/claude-code@latest --version
2.1.302 (Claude Code)

How to keep working

You have four options:

/rate-limit-options lets you pick between waiting, adding usage credits, and upgrading. Press Esc to cancel the wait (sources: https://code.claude.com/docs/en/interactive-mode and https://support.claude.com/en/articles/12429409-manage-usage-credits-for-paid-claude-plans, checked 2026-10-18).

One caveat: if the ANTHROPIC_API_KEY environment variable is set, Claude Code authenticates with that key instead of your subscription. You are then billed at API rates (source: https://support.claude.com/en/articles/11145838-use-claude-code-with-your-pro-or-max-plan, checked 2026-10-18).

Telling a limit from a 429 or other error

A plan limit blocks you until the reset time. Retrying won’t bring access back. Two other things look similar:

API Error: Repeated 529 Overloaded errors. The API is at capacity — this is usually temporary. Try again in a moment. If it persists, check https://status.claude.com.

(source: https://code.claude.com/docs/en/errors, checked 2026-10-18)

How to hit limits less often

These come from the official docs:

A session left open for a long time uses more than you might expect, because every request sends the whole conversation. Your first message after a break also reprocesses the full context if the cache has expired. On a subscription, the cache lifetime is one hour. For keeping CLAUDE.md small, see Trim Your CLAUDE.md (source: https://code.claude.com/docs/en/costs, checked 2026-10-18).

Summary