[BUG] Claude Code shows 'Usage limit reached' despite session at 2% and weekly at 32%

I am facing the same issue. My plan is pro and limits are well under. Also getting this on Sonnet 4.6 Medium.

It looks like a bug that was introduced after the latest update. Go and have a look at your JSON file, and you might see a model of Sonnet 1M on it.
It looks like they're tightening up the Sonnet model.

So found something interesting, in my desktop app, Claude Code
Opus 4.7: Works
Sonnet 4.6: NOT working
Haiku 4.5: Works

I didn't change anything, Sonnet has been working for more than a month or so.

Confirming this bug still occurs on Claude Code binary 2.1.149 (the latest at time of writing), via Claude Desktop on Windows 11.

Same exact error message:

API Error: Usage credits required for 1M context · turn on usage credits at claude.ai/settings/usage, or use --model to switch to standard context

Repro pattern from my logs (2026-05-23):

2026-05-23 20:05:30 [info] Sending message to session <blob>
2026-05-23 20:05:32 [warn] [CCD CycleHealth] <blob> api_error (success): API Error: Usage credits required for 1M context...
2026-05-23 20:05:32 [info] [CCD CycleHealth] unhealthy cycle for <blob> (2s, hadFirstResponse=true, reason=api_error)

Bug fires consistently within ~2s of sending any message on Sonnet 4.6, even in a fresh session with empty context. 8 consecutive failures across 24 minutes.

Workarounds that work:

• Switching to Opus 4.7 -> works fine
• Switching to Haiku 4.5 -> works fine
• Only Sonnet 4.6 is blocked

This suggests Claude Code is force-enabling the 1M context flag for Sonnet specifically, without a graceful fallback to 200k when the user does not have usage credits enabled. The fix is probably to either:

1. Not auto-enable 1M context when user has no credits, OR
2. Fallback gracefully to 200k on this specific error

Environment:

• Plan: Pro
• OS: Windows 11
• Claude Desktop with embedded Claude Code 2.1.149
• Model: Sonnet 4.6 (default)

I'm experiencing the same issue.

• Sonnet: usage limit reached (showing only 19% used, Weekly 5% used)
• On Chat, Sonnet works fine
• Opus: works fine
• Limit has persisted for over 12 hours after the 5-hour window reset
• AI support was unable to resolve this

Same issue on max plan as well

Same issue on max plan Sonnet 4.6 as well

Same issue on plus plan

For those still hitting this issue, here's what worked for me:

Root cause: The recent update silently switched Sonnet 4.6 to 1M context by default. This triggers billing via "usage credits" even if you're on a Pro plan — and if you've activated usage credits to unblock Sonnet, it will consume your extra credit balance fast.

Fix: Disable 1M context manually to go back to the standard 200k window.

Add this to your ~/.claude/settings.json:

"env": {
  "CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_1M_CONTEXT": "1"
}

Then restart Claude Desktop. Sonnet 4.6 works normally again with no credit consumption.

⚠️ Do NOT activate usage credits as a workaround — it will bill you for every session at 1M context rates.

For those still dealing with this issue, this is completely unacceptable at this point.

I was forced to switch away from Sonnet and use Opus/other models just to continue working because the standard workflow became unusable. The limits are being hit insanely fast and it completely blocks ongoing projects. This has been happening for days now and there is still no clear communication or proper fix.

What makes this worse is that many of us did not even realize that the recent changes apparently enabled much larger context usage by default. If that is true then users should have been clearly warned because token usage and limits suddenly behave very differently. A lot of people are burning through credits or hitting restrictions far earlier than expected.

This is not a minor inconvenience. People rely on these tools for actual work and deadlines. Silent changes to usage behavior combined with unstable availability is a terrible experience for paying users.

At minimum there should be:

transparent communication about what changed,
clear warnings when high-context modes are enabled,
temporary compensation or refunds for affected users,
and a proper fix instead of leaving users stuck for days.

I genuinely expected better reliability and communication than this.

same issue

I am facing the same issue, I am in to the Pro plan and it's showing the usage limt reached message and my usage was under 10%

<img width="1131" height="752" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/f78f6d3d-0749-4d48-bcf9-95fc070faa87" />

Hit this exact scenario tonight (Max 20x, v2.1.199, macOS): every Claude Code request blocked with "session limit" at 100–102% in the status line, while the CLI's own /usage panel and claude.ai settings both showed the session at 3% — and claude.ai chat worked normally throughout.

Found a likely mechanism and an immediate fix. I'd been running 5 parallel sessions that legitimately exhausted a window; 3 surfaced the usage-limit UI but 2 hung in a stuck state. Those stuck processes were holding the enforcement counter — Ctrl+C on them cleared the block instantly, hours before the advertised reset. So before waiting out the clock, check every machine for wedged claude processes.

Full evidence timeline (screenshots of both meters disagreeing in the same minute, cross-model/effort/surface repro) posted on #54750: https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/54750#issuecomment-4886131876.

Same issue here, even with the /usage command I can see that I still have tokens:

<img width="848" height="515" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/f2047af1-0efa-4486-a465-fe67e48c7801" />

But if I ask something it says that I reach the limits:

<img width="663" height="133" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/4296a351-f2ac-475d-91f1-3afd9bf2c585" />

the same here!

<img width="1135" height="375" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/4dadcae7-5bd6-4546-86fe-6d5b27cdb44a" />
<img width="1086" height="749" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/bd6c2255-eeb7-48e4-b740-b9834094a195" />

That's a bummer. I was waiting for about 4 hours to continue, and I simply wrote "please continue", and I got the next forced break right away.

@claude Don't you think you should have a look on bugs like this?? BTW, in Claude (MOBILE) everything works, so your CLAUDE CODE DESKTOP has a PROBLEM!

EDIT: What I did to solve this, LOGOUT and fresh LOGIN. This forced the app to re-read the real limits and the message went away.