[Bug] Max plan usage consumed at unusually high rate without workflow changes

Found 3 possible duplicate issues:

1. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/8742
2. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/8505
3. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/9544

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🤖 Generated with Claude Code

Same here. This is insane, Anthropic has charging the same price for 20% of previous use.

MAX Plan ($100/month) - Session limit consumed by simple chat conversation only
I'm on the MAX 5x plan paying €100/month. Today I hit "Limit reached" after just two small code fixes in Claude Code. When I checked my usage, my session was at 100% while weekly was only at 15%.
After the 5-hour reset, I started a new session. I did NOT use Claude Code at all - just had a single chat conversation on claude.ai discussing this usage issue.
Here's what happened to my session limit during this ONE conversation:

Started at 0%
After a few messages: 2%
Shortly after: 10%
Now: 15%

No code written. No Claude Code used. Just text chat with some web searches and a few screenshot uploads.
At this rate, I can have about 6-7 chat conversations before hitting my 5-hour session limit. For €100/month.

Same here

Same, insane rate, never reach limits until today

1% per 1000 tokens

Came here in search of others experiencing this. I'm doing the same thing I've been doing for months and I've hit my limit twice today. Each time, right around the 2hr mark. While I realize this isn't terribly scientific as far as evidence goes, the point is that the exact same behavior is yielding different results. Out of character results. I often get close to hitting the limits as I near the 5hr mark.

have same issue... one question about code(with referenced files) - 25% off... write plan on small chage -25% then ask about plan and correct one thing that war wrong - 25% then implement by plan --> -25% hit limit and question if I want to buy more tokens to finish task or wait 4 hours

+1

Same here, thinking on switching to Antigravity. Same workflow and 1 day I'm at 20% weekly usage and I reach my 5 hours limit in 1 hour.

Same here for MAX Plan ($100/month). I've reached the limit in 3.5 h, before 2.0.64 the highest level was 60-70 % after very-very intensive sessions with lots of code analysis and code/documents generation. @claude

Environment Info

Platform: darwin
Terminal: iTerm.app
Version: 2.0.64

● Write(candidatos/vagas/desenvolvedor_backend_python_fastapi.md)

⎿ Wrote 95 lines to candidatos/vagas/desenvolvedor_backend_python_fastapi.md

… +85 lines (ctrl+o to expand)

Current session

█ 2% used

Resets 4pm (UTC)

This response use 2% from my $100 5 hour limit, what is that?

Hey folks - the release of instant compaction in 2.0.64 may have caused compaction to run too often in some situations. We turned off the gate for this feature around noon PT yesterday.

Hey folks - the release of instant compaction in 2.0.64 may have caused compaction to run too often in some situations. We turned off the gate for this feature around noon PT yesterday.

Hi Igor, thanks for the update. It looks like myself and others are still experiencing reduced usage limits today/on v2.0.65

The problem is still there after the update, it's not duplicate due to the current version : 2.0.65
The smallest exchange costs 1-2%, and as soon as Claude modifies the code, it will consume 2 or 3%. In one hour, the work session reaches its limit, and weekly consumption is also impacted. It's as if the Max plan had become a simple Pro plan...

Today, 12% usage just to configure statusline? it was a test and is worse

<img width="1155" height="160" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/9492457c-5606-49b9-a292-5dfebc87034e" />
$100 Max plan

Same here. Hitting a 5 hour limit within 30 minutes without any change in my workflow. This is ridiculous.

🤖Opus 4.5 📊268k/200k(134%) 💵$18.50 ₿91,4k 🌡️29°C ⧉ In RESUMO_ANALISES.md

⏵⏵ accept edits on (shift+tab to cycle) Context left until auto-compact: 0%

· Compacting conversation… (esc to interrupt · ctrl+t to hide todos · 42m 24s · ↓ 21.4k tokens)

4 compacts for 268k tokens - 40% session limit

another sample

──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
🤖Opus 4.5 📊291k/200k(145%) 💵$20.86 ₿90,5k 🌡️29°C ⧉ In RESUMO_ANALISES.md
⏵⏵ accept edits on (shift+tab to cycle) Context left until auto-compact: 5%

🤖Opus 4.5 📊296k/200k(148%) 💵$21.18 ₿90,5k 🌡️29°C ⧉ In RESUMO_ANALISES.md
⏵⏵ accept edits on (shift+tab to cycle) Context left until auto-compact: 0%

6k tokens, 5% context

Likewise, usage is suddenly off the charts with zero change to workflow. Feels a little shady tbh.

⭐ TIPS:
I've been browsing similar area:cost issues re: Claude this morning and have gathered a few tips in one place. These don't fix the issue entirely _but_ they've helped cut down my usage in the interim: hope these help someone!

1. direct Claude to _not_ use Task feature, and to use utility tools for common tasks. Add –no-agent flag to your prompt as well (several users reporting that Claude is recruiting subagents without disclosing this to the user)

• ie “ --no-agent for the remainder of our work in this session. DO NOT use the Task tool. Use Grep to find files, Read to check them, and Edit to fix them directly."

1. use /config in the CLI to disable auto-compact, as this is another source of token overconsumption

If anyone else finds ways to reduce token consumption while we wait, feel free to share! 👍

<img width="1404" height="242" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/0bac31cc-db40-455e-8e09-b5c6afedfb33" />

<img width="1198" height="177" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/2577d9d7-d2da-49c0-97ff-8092726093f6" />

why no one is talking about this?

@grandtheftdisco yes just don't use any of CC's most useful features! Might I suggest that you guys troubleshoot this by using that one Claude Code trace tool (node version of CC required, iirc) to see if it's actual excessive token usage from broken internals or another shady limit change by Anthropic. Everybody knows this party is coming to an end, the question is when ;)

@transcendr Thanks for the tip and the feedback. I appreciate how friendly you are! Any chance you could explain how to use the trace tool or provide doc links to help those of us that are less enlightened?

From what I’ve seen, this doesn’t look accidental. Anthropic is trying to attribute this to the instant auto-compact bug (?), yet even after that was removed, severe rate limits persist- and we’ve received zero communication since. We shouldn't be forced to alter our established workflows just to access the usage limits we previously enjoyed. At this point, the least we can do is cancel our subscriptions.

@fhdggervvtcusg Good point - we shouldn't have to alter our workflows, no. And I'm seriously considering canceling my subscription: whether they've silently decreased token limits or this is a systemic issue, it's ridiculous for anyone to pay money for it at this point.

Here's the trace utility for anyone who wants to dig in more: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@mariozechner/claude-trace

Interesting, still no official acknowledgement from Anthropic on this. Still experiencing severe usage limit reductions compared to ~a week ago on the Max plan.

Can someone from Anthropic please acknowledge this?

Multiple Max plan users are experiencing a drastic and sudden increase in usage consumption with no workflow changes. This has been ongoing for days, support is unresponsive, and there has been zero official communication.

Please confirm whether this is a known issue or a change in usage accounting. Paying customers deserve at least an acknowledgement.

Can someone from Anthropic please acknowledge this? Multiple Max plan users are experiencing a drastic and sudden increase in usage consumption with no workflow changes. This has been ongoing for days, support is unresponsive, and there has been zero official communication. Please confirm whether this is a known issue or a change in usage accounting. Paying customers deserve at least an acknowledgement.

all the while, the stock price is climbing. It's ridiculous!

+1
If this isn't fixed anytime soon I'm going to be forced to change subscription provider :|

+1 Same issue here normally never hit the 5 hour limit now it looks like a download bar and with every prompt it goes up abnormally fast.

+1 on being forced to change providers. I had a lot of work planned to complete this weekend and am dead in the water.

I have a support ticket open and of course the bot and initial support human response said everything looks fine. I suggested this could be a version change and referenced this and several related GitHub issues and Reddit posts related to it. Not holding my breath anything will be done until at least Monday unfortunately. I'm hopeful they will restore limits for those of us that have been inappropriately capped.

Pretty evident this surfaced in 2.1.0

Lot of good troubleshooting here
https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/16157

I'm rolling back to 2.0.77 until further notice

Same problem here, I paid 50 USD yesterday for extra usage and I used 10 prompts, this can't be right.

Let's try to tank the stock price and see if this changes.

High consumption without workflow changes usually means session bloat is growing silently. Progress ticks, file-history snapshots, and stale tool results accumulate and inflate every API call.

Cozempic v1.4.1 runs a guard daemon that auto-prunes. compact-summary-collapse alone saves 85-95% on compacted sessions. image-strip removes old base64 screenshots (keeps last 20%).

pip install cozempic && cozempic init

The diagnose command shows your cache hit rate and per-type bloat breakdown so you can see exactly what's consuming tokens.