Max plan: Claude Code may compress context at 200K instead of using extended context window
Resolved 💬 2 comments Opened May 29, 2026 by jimvaras-design Closed May 29, 2026
Plan: Max 20x
Model: claude-opus-4-6
Version: 2.1.153
Claude Code triggers context compression ("Transmuting") well before what my Max plan should allow. I suspect the client tracks the context window against the model's base 200K limit and doesn't account for the extended context available on Max plans.
Evidence:
- Session hits "100% context used" and starts compressing during moderate-length conversations
- ~82K tokens of system prompt (startup hooks, CLAUDE.md chain, 9 MCP servers) means only ~118K remains for actual conversation before compression
- On Max 20x, I'd expect access to the full context window, not early compression at 200K
Expected behavior: Claude Code should query the plan's actual context limit from the API and use that as the compression threshold, not a hardcoded model default.
Requested info: Does Max 20x extend the context window for Opus 4.6 beyond 200K? If yes, does Claude Code honor that?
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