Everything we know about Claude Code Limits

Production Guides

Last updated -  29 July 2025

TL;DR

• Rolling 5‑hour sessions remain the core limit; new weekly quotas start 28 Aug 2025 for Pro & Max to curb ~5 % of power users.
• Pro ($20/mo), Max 5× ($100/mo) and Max 20× ($200/mo) plans share one bucket across Claude chat + Claude Code; Max tiers simply multiply the 5‑hour allowance.
• API usage is pay‑as‑you‑go:
  Sonnet 4 → $3 in / $15 out per M tokens
  Opus 4 → $15 in / $75 out per M tokens
• The same token rates apply when you call Claude via AWS Bedrock or Google Vertex AI; choose whichever region, VPC, or IAM model best fits your stack.
• Community scripts (e.g., claude‑code‑usage‑monitor) help track windows, but 24 / 7 farming has triggered a few bans—Anthropic can impose ad‑hoc caps.
• Portkey’s AI Gateway lets enterprises route Claude Code through Anthropic, Bedrock, or Vertex with one config, while adding spend controls, RBAC, observability, and guardrails.

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Understanding the 5‑Hour Session Model

The moment you run claude in your terminal, a 5‑hour rolling window begins. All messages and token spend during that period draw from your plan’s pool; the clock resets only when you send the next message after the 5 hours lapse. Pro users average 10‑40 prompts per window, while Max 20× users can push 200‑800 prompts depending on code size and model choice. (Source: Anthropic Help Center)

💡 Tips

1. Time your first prompt so the window spans your peak coding block; fire a dummy ping at 13:01 to start a fresh window for the afternoon.
2. Batch edits: one long diff request burns fewer tokens than several “please refine” follow‑ups.

Plan Pricing & Capacities

Plan Monthly fee Relative capacity Typical Claude Code prompts / 5 h Model access

Free	$0	≈ ⅒ Pro	2‑5 (Sonnet 4 only)	Sonnet 4
Pro	$20	baseline	10‑40	Sonnet 4
Max 5×	$100	5 × Pro	50‑200	Sonnet 4 + Opus 4
Max 20×	$200	20 × Pro	200‑800	Sonnet 4 + Opus 4

Weekly limit kicker (28 Aug 2025): Pro ≈ 40‑80 Claude Code hours; Max tiers scale proportionally. The 5‑hour windows stay—weekly just adds a ceiling.

Token‑Based API Pricing (Console, Bedrock, Vertex)

Model Anthropic APIAWS Bedrock* Google Vertex AI*

Opus 4	$15 in / $75 out per M tokens	same list price	same list price
Sonnet 4	$3 in / $15 out	same list price	same list price
3.7 Sonnet	$3 / $15	same	same
3.5 Haiku	$0.80 / $4	same	same

* Bedrock and Vertex bill in the currency of your account and add standard cloud charges (data egress, networking, etc.). Region selection, IAM policies, and VPC endpoints are the usual enterprise reasons to pick one over the other. Anthropic confirms pricing parity across channels.

Which Endpoint Should You Use?

Need Best Option Why

Lowest latency to US‑East	AWS Bedrock (us‑east‑1)	Dedicated Anthropic capacity inside AWS infra
Private networking / VPC‑SC	Vertex AI Private Service Connect	Keeps traffic off the public internet
Global multi‑region fail‑over	Portkey Gateway	Abstracts region + provider routing
Advanced cost controls	Portkey budgets + prompt caching	Enforce spend limits, auto‑downgrade models

Portkey: One Switch for Anthropic, Bedrock, or Vertex

Direct Claude Code is great for solo hacking, but enterprises need:

1. Unified gateway routing – point Claude Code to Portkey once; flip between Anthropic, Bedrock, or Vertex by config.
2. Live spend & usage dashboards – 40‑plus metrics, cost attribution by team, and budget alerts.
3. RBAC + guardrails – per‑role rate limits, banned‑pattern filters, and partner guardrails from Palo Alto, Prompt Security, Pangea, etc.
4. Audit‑ready logs – every prompt, response, and error logged with metadata for compliance.

Bottom line: Portkey turns Claude Code into an enterprise‑grade service without forcing you to rebuild scripts or choose a single cloud. Drop your API key(s) into Portkey, set a config, and your devs keep typing claude …—now with observability, governance, and cloud‑agnostic resilience baked in.

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