### Preflight Checklist - [x] I have searched [existing issues](https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues?q=is%3Aissue%20state%3Aopen%20label%3Abug) and this hasn't been reported yet - [x] This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs) - [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code ### What's Wrong? Claude Opus 4.6[1m] Thinking Medium Effort. In four months on Max plan I have never hit an hourly limit. Starting today, usage budget is consumed at a cr

[BUG] 2 PERCENT OF BUDGET USED BY ASKING ABOUT BUDGET USE

Status Closed — not planned

Reported on v2.1.83

Maintainer reply None cached

Activity 13 comments · opened Mar 26, 2026 · closed May 10, 2026

Preflight Checklist

[x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
[x] This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
[x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

Claude Opus 4.6[1m] Thinking Medium Effort.

In four months on Max plan I have never hit an hourly limit. Starting today, usage budget is consumed at a crazy high rate. Compacting took 8 percent. Asking it about usage took 2 percent. Asking it to trim memory to reduce token count took 4 percent. One edit of a static web page took 14 percent.

At this rate, Claude will become useless to me.

What changed? Why now? And when will this be addressed?

What Should Happen?

Before today I never hit an hourly budget limit. What should happen? I should never hit one again,

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

Hello claude. How are you?

2 percent of budget.

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

2.1.83 (Claude Code)

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

Terminal.app (macOS)

Additional Information

_No response_

View original on GitHub ↗

13 Comments

IuliuNovac · 5 months ago

It’s strange, but idle time is still counted toward my usage. Even just leaving claude-cli open in the terminal without using it ended up affecting my daily usage.

github-actions[bot] · 5 months ago

Found 3 possible duplicate issues:

This issue will be automatically closed as a duplicate in 3 days.

If your issue is a duplicate, please close it and 👍 the existing issue instead
To prevent auto-closure, add a comment or 👎 this comment

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

SysAdminDoc · 5 months ago

Bait and switch, they achieved market share. Now it's time for them to pull the rug.

marlvinvu · 5 months ago

My Claude says you should link with issues #38239, #37917, #38106 as these issues appear to be similar, and to get more attention from Anthropic.

Astro-Han · 5 months ago

The statusline feature in Claude Code receives session data via stdin on every render, including rate_limits.five_hour.used_percentage. No API call, no token cost.

I built claude-lens around this: your 5h and 7d quota show up in the status bar automatically. Single Bash file + jq. You never need to ask Claude about your budget again.

TheAuditorTool · 5 months ago

Yeh, im hitting abnormal usage too...
Normally 1x 5 hour limit is 8% for my total week.. During promo it was 5-6%...
Today? Its 14 fking percent... Thats HALF my usage per week...
What the actual fk is going on here???????
Max20 here...

kackbert-lang · 5 months ago

Same here:

Konkreter Schaden:

Ein voller Arbeitstag mit mehreren erzwungenen Wartezeiten durch Limit-Resets
Bei moderater Nutzung wurden 45% des Wochenlimits (Pro) DIenstag mittag verbraucht
Signifikanter Verlust an Projektstruktur, da ich diese in der Annahme es sein ein Problem am aktuellen Projekt, deutlich verschlankt habe bevor ich auf git geladen habe
Vertrauensverlust in die Zuverlässigkeit der Token-Abrechnung

Meine Erwartung:

Transparente Kommunikation über den Zeitplan zur Behebung des Cache-Bugs
Eine Form der Kompensation für den entstandenen Aufwand (z.B. Gutschrift auf das Kontingent)

Tito-42 · 5 months ago

For me, 01/04/2026, this morning: rate limit 100% exhausted in ~50 minutes. I waited 4 hours and the rate limit was 100% exhausted again with a single prompt.

TheAuditorTool · 5 months ago

Done in ~3 days and i slowed down the last day and i was on .88. and .89...
Zero difference for me... Thats about HALF my usage this week...

This is max20... 200 usd per month... Unacceptable....

Everyone should cancel their sub, even if you intend to resume it in x weeks? Cancel it... If 10-100k of us do it? It will be statistically big enough to force their hand... Its the only way at this point...

Tito-42 · 5 months ago

For me, 01/04/2026, this morning: rate limit 100% exhausted in ~50 minutes. I waited 4 hours and the rate limit was 100% exhausted again with a single prompt.

marlvinvu · 5 months ago

A user in #40584 may have found the root cause for your rate limit issue. Two findings:

The "Rate limit reached" error is generated CLIENT-SIDE by Claude Code, not by the Anthropic API. Evidence: model: "<synthetic>", input_tokens: 0, output_tokens: 0 — no request was ever sent to the API. The client-side rate limiter counts the entire context size against the token budget, so large/long sessions get permanently blocked even when the API is fully available.
The client-side rate limiter MULTIPLIES estimated context tokens by the number of concurrent requests. So 3 subagents × 400K context = 1.2M tokens counted against budget — even though the context is cached and shared. This means as your session grows, fewer concurrent agents can run before hitting the false limit.

See #40584 for the full analysis with log evidence from two independent occurrences.

github-actions[bot] · 3 months ago

Closing for now — inactive for too long. Please open a new issue if this is still relevant.

github-actions[bot] · 2 months ago

This issue has been automatically locked since it was closed and has not had any activity for 7 days. If you're experiencing a similar issue, please file a new issue and reference this one if it's relevant.