{"slug": "claude-max", "name": "Claude Max", "category": "ai-coding", "category_name": "AI coding tools", "description": "Anthropic's premium Claude subscription plan with higher usage limits, including Claude Code access.", "recommenders": 9, "commenters": 20, "warners": 2, "score": 8.987, "rising": 3.69, "first": "2025-11-26", "latest": "2026-10-20", "why": "Liked for usage limits that many commenters say they rarely hit and for far more tokens per dollar than API pricing, especially for heavy coding.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 8, "neutral": 9, "compare": 1, "warn": 2}, "spark": [0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2], "listed": true, "loved": ["Generous limits", "Token value"], "caveat": "Heavy-use limits", "short_quote": "If you're going to be coding A LOT just go for Claude Max.", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://claude.com/pricing/max", "pricing": "paid", "aliases": ["Claude Max"], "verdict": [{"text": "Liked for usage limits that many commenters say they rarely hit", "cites": [{"id": 799262448, "item_id": 49953903, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49953903", "by": "zzzeek", "date": "2026-10-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "i use claude max and ive yet to get even 30% into my quota for it.", "excerpt": "i use claude max and ive yet to get even 30% into my quota for it. so as long as that kind of deal lasts i dont think much about tokens. if i did have to think about tokens I use something like together.ai with an open weight model like glm 5.3 (which ill sometimes use to review a claude change for something intricate). glm 5.x is just very chatty though", "context": "", "use_case": "AI coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "Pop!_OS bans AI-generated code from much of its codebase"}, {"id": 786468592, "item_id": 49154287, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49154287", "by": "jwr", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'm finding it hard to run into the limits of a Claude Max (20x) account.", "excerpt": "I hear so much about people running into token limits and using bajillions of tokens. Am I doing something wrong? I'm finding it hard to run into the limits of a Claude Max (20x) account. Well, perhaps the 50% Fable limit is something I have to be aware of, but otherwise this more than I can consume. I am the limiting factor: my capability to review code and design documents. I use it to develop a large MRP-style app", "context": "", "use_case": "developing a large MRP-style app", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Shape of Things to Come"}, {"id": 783579504, "item_id": 48973719, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48973719", "by": "spottedmarley", "date": "2026-07-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "If you're going to be coding A LOT just go for Claude Max.", "excerpt": "If you're going to be coding A LOT just go for Claude Max. I think it's $200 now (I got in back when it was $100) I never see limits and I use Claude Code pretty much constantly. On the other hand, I still use Opus 4.8 .. maybe Fable would hit the Max plan limit.. not sure. Max plan is sweet though", "context": "", "use_case": "heavy coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What paid AI tools are worth it for creative tech projects?"}, {"id": 777083792, "item_id": 48567737, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48567737", "by": "suncemoje", "date": "2026-06-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "the $150 Claude Max subscription - of which I barely hit the limits anyways, even though I used it non-stop at work - still is very cost effective.", "excerpt": "Need to give that a try then. What's your experience so far? Also in terms of cost/benefit? My current hypothesis is that the $150 Claude Max subscription - of which I barely hit the limits anyways, even though I used it non-stop at work - still is very cost effective. If the price of Claude Max increased significantly (say 2-3x), and my business would balk at paying the subscription, then I'd look for an alternative", "context": "uses it non-stop at work", "use_case": "work coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "SpaceX to buy Cursor AI coding agent operator Anysphere for $60B"}, {"id": 776311472, "item_id": 48519467, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48519467", "by": "abc42", "date": "2026-06-13", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use several agents with max effort in parallel and usually end up with something like 50% weekly usage.", "excerpt": "What kind of usage chews through Claude Max x20? I use several agents with max effort in parallel and usually end up with something like 50% weekly usage. Fable almost allowed me to get to 70% but then they started resetting the limits mid-week and of course now ended the whole thing.", "context": "", "use_case": "parallel coding agents", "switched_from": "", "story": "AI Coding at Home Without Going Broke"}]}, {"text": " and for far more tokens per dollar than API pricing, especially for heavy coding.", "cites": [{"id": 795154674, "item_id": 49697167, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49697167", "by": "Roark66", "date": "2026-09-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "No one will give you as many input tokens for so little money as Claude Max x5", "excerpt": "Openrouter is not ideal, because you don't know who they send your traffic to and there are rumours of vendors cheating by providing quantized models. I'm very happy with Deepinfra. Less model coverage, but good prices and quite fast. However I have to caution you about one thing. No one will give you as many input tokens for so little money as Claude Max x5 (maybe x20 too, I use x5). I tend to use 1.1B to 1.4B a wee", "context": "uses about 1B tokens a week", "use_case": "heavy AI coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "Big AI sets out its terms for regulatory capture"}, {"id": 751576593, "item_id": 46973537, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46973537", "by": "theorchid", "date": "2026-02-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "So I switched to Claude Max for $100.", "excerpt": "With an ultra subscription price of $200, Cursor gives you approximately $500 worth of API requests. But even that limit isn't enough for me. So I switched to Claude Max for $100. But the problem is that I really like Cursor as an IDE, and Claude only provides a terminal or a plugin for VS Code. So I had to use Claude to write a script that proxies all requests from Cursor to the Claude Max subscription, bypassing AP", "context": "", "use_case": "AI coding subscription", "switched_from": "Cursor", "story": "Cursor switches pay-per-token when your plan limit end. Calls \"On-Demand usage\""}, {"id": 786197809, "item_id": 49137363, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49137363", "by": "jeffrwells", "date": "2026-08-01", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "my $100/mo Claude Max plan", "excerpt": "According to ccusage I use about $5k of tokens on my $100/mo Claude Max plan and only hit 5-hr windows where I have to switch tools for a couple hours about once a week", "context": "", "use_case": "AI coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cursor removed cost information from the usage page and CSV export"}, {"id": 793031088, "item_id": 49564443, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49564443", "by": "Roark66", "date": "2026-09-04", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I started measuring my Claude Max x5 use", "excerpt": "Don't they have very low limits? What do people use these tiny limits for? I started measuring my Claude Max x5 use and last week (they gave me 50% more) I used 1.3B input tokens. Some 130M were cache writes, rest was cached. And 5M output. This puts things in perspective. We're taking thousands of bucks weekly even if I managed to switch to Kimi K3. What is the majority of this use? Infrastructure upgrades, troubles", "context": "heavy Claude user", "use_case": "infrastructure upgrades, troubleshooting", "switched_from": "", "story": "Qwen 3.8 27B available on Cerebras at 1500 tokens/s"}]}, {"text": " The most common caveats are that heavy or Fable-driven use can still exhaust quotas", "cites": [{"id": 796647729, "item_id": 49790483, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49790483", "by": "swalsh", "date": "2026-09-21", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used to be a Claude Max subscriber", "excerpt": "Codex has become my goto tooling. I used to be a Claude Max subscriber, but I was becoming disappointed with the quality of the output from Opus 5. Fable chewed through my usage too quickly to be practical. Moving to a Pro account w/ Codex was a big improvement. Sol had great output, and the usage was more than sufficient for most of my needs. However astra does tend to chew up usage, so when i've done to much of tha", "context": "", "use_case": "AI coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "Grok 4.7"}, {"id": 784910481, "item_id": 49056905, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49056905", "by": "vidarh", "date": "2026-07-26", "stance": "compare", "quote": "The subs for those alternative providers have similar tiering but more generous token allocations than Anthropic and OpenAI", "excerpt": "The subs for those alternative providers have similar tiering but more generous token allocations than Anthropic and OpenAI, and deliver good enough quality to be worth it. If I needed to fall back on OpenRouter, it'd be paid per token, of course, but that'd take 4 major providers being down, in which case I suspect I'll have more critical things to worry about. As it is, I use more than I could with a single $200 Cl", "context": "", "use_case": "AI coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "Elevated Errors for Opus 5"}, {"id": 786197809, "item_id": 49137363, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49137363", "by": "jeffrwells", "date": "2026-08-01", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "my $100/mo Claude Max plan", "excerpt": "According to ccusage I use about $5k of tokens on my $100/mo Claude Max plan and only hit 5-hr windows where I have to switch tools for a couple hours about once a week", "context": "", "use_case": "AI coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cursor removed cost information from the usage page and CSV export"}, {"id": 776311472, "item_id": 48519467, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48519467", "by": "abc42", "date": "2026-06-13", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use several agents with max effort in parallel and usually end up with something like 50% weekly usage.", "excerpt": "What kind of usage chews through Claude Max x20? I use several agents with max effort in parallel and usually end up with something like 50% weekly usage. Fable almost allowed me to get to 70% but then they started resetting the limits mid-week and of course now ended the whole thing.", "context": "", "use_case": "parallel coding agents", "switched_from": "", "story": "AI Coding at Home Without Going Broke"}]}, {"text": " and that some feel output quality and value per dollar have declined.", "cites": [{"id": 769168403, "item_id": 48073025, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48073025", "by": "DeathArrow", "date": "2026-05-09", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I said goodbye to both Claude Max and Cursor.", "excerpt": "In terms of work done per dollar, new models from OpenAI and Anthropic are worse than the older models. They are trying to squeeze the customers. For personal use I switched to coding plans containing GLM 5.1, Kimi K2.6 and Xiaomi MiMo V2.5 Pro and I never been happier. I said goodbye to both Claude Max and Cursor.", "context": "", "use_case": "AI coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "GPT-5.5 Price Increase: What It Costs"}, {"id": 796647729, "item_id": 49790483, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49790483", "by": "swalsh", "date": "2026-09-21", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used to be a Claude Max subscriber", "excerpt": "Codex has become my goto tooling. I used to be a Claude Max subscriber, but I was becoming disappointed with the quality of the output from Opus 5. Fable chewed through my usage too quickly to be practical. Moving to a Pro account w/ Codex was a big improvement. Sol had great output, and the usage was more than sufficient for most of my needs. However astra does tend to chew up usage, so when i've done to much of tha", "context": "", "use_case": "AI coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "Grok 4.7"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Generous limits", "summary": "Many heavy users say they rarely approach their quota even with constant use.", "quotes": [{"id": 799262448, "item_id": 49953903, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49953903", "by": "zzzeek", "date": "2026-10-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "i use claude max and ive yet to get even 30% into my quota for it.", "excerpt": "i use claude max and ive yet to get even 30% into my quota for it. so as long as that kind of deal lasts i dont think much about tokens. if i did have to think about tokens I use something like together.ai with an open weight model like glm 5.3 (which ill sometimes use to review a claude change for something intricate). glm 5.x is just very chatty though", "context": "", "use_case": "AI coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "Pop!_OS bans AI-generated code from much of its codebase"}, {"id": 786468592, "item_id": 49154287, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49154287", "by": "jwr", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'm finding it hard to run into the limits of a Claude Max (20x) account.", "excerpt": "I hear so much about people running into token limits and using bajillions of tokens. Am I doing something wrong? I'm finding it hard to run into the limits of a Claude Max (20x) account. Well, perhaps the 50% Fable limit is something I have to be aware of, but otherwise this more than I can consume. I am the limiting factor: my capability to review code and design documents. I use it to develop a large MRP-style app", "context": "", "use_case": "developing a large MRP-style app", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Shape of Things to Come"}, {"id": 777083792, "item_id": 48567737, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48567737", "by": "suncemoje", "date": "2026-06-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "the $150 Claude Max subscription - of which I barely hit the limits anyways, even though I used it non-stop at work - still is very cost effective.", "excerpt": "Need to give that a try then. What's your experience so far? Also in terms of cost/benefit? My current hypothesis is that the $150 Claude Max subscription - of which I barely hit the limits anyways, even though I used it non-stop at work - still is very cost effective. If the price of Claude Max increased significantly (say 2-3x), and my business would balk at paying the subscription, then I'd look for an alternative", "context": "uses it non-stop at work", "use_case": "work coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "SpaceX to buy Cursor AI coding agent operator Anysphere for $60B"}]}, {"label": "Token value", "summary": "The subscription covers token usage that would cost far more at API prices.", "quotes": [{"id": 795154674, "item_id": 49697167, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49697167", "by": "Roark66", "date": "2026-09-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "No one will give you as many input tokens for so little money as Claude Max x5", "excerpt": "Openrouter is not ideal, because you don't know who they send your traffic to and there are rumours of vendors cheating by providing quantized models. I'm very happy with Deepinfra. Less model coverage, but good prices and quite fast. However I have to caution you about one thing. No one will give you as many input tokens for so little money as Claude Max x5 (maybe x20 too, I use x5). I tend to use 1.1B to 1.4B a wee", "context": "uses about 1B tokens a week", "use_case": "heavy AI coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "Big AI sets out its terms for regulatory capture"}, {"id": 786197809, "item_id": 49137363, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49137363", "by": "jeffrwells", "date": "2026-08-01", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "my $100/mo Claude Max plan", "excerpt": "According to ccusage I use about $5k of tokens on my $100/mo Claude Max plan and only hit 5-hr windows where I have to switch tools for a couple hours about once a week", "context": "", "use_case": "AI coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cursor removed cost information from the usage page and CSV export"}, {"id": 751576593, "item_id": 46973537, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46973537", "by": "theorchid", "date": "2026-02-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "So I switched to Claude Max for $100.", "excerpt": "With an ultra subscription price of $200, Cursor gives you approximately $500 worth of API requests. But even that limit isn't enough for me. So I switched to Claude Max for $100. But the problem is that I really like Cursor as an IDE, and Claude only provides a terminal or a plugin for VS Code. So I had to use Claude to write a script that proxies all requests from Cursor to the Claude Max subscription, bypassing AP", "context": "", "use_case": "AI coding subscription", "switched_from": "Cursor", "story": "Cursor switches pay-per-token when your plan limit end. Calls \"On-Demand usage\""}]}, {"label": "Coding strength", "summary": "Commenters prefer it for programming over other assistants and Copilot.", "quotes": [{"id": 737967362, "item_id": 46122960, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46122960", "by": "poszlem", "date": "2025-12-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's still not there for programming, where I use Claude Max", "excerpt": "To be honest, this is the first month in almost a year when I didn't pay for ChatGPT Pro and instead went for Gemini Ultra. It's still not there for programming, where I use Claude Max, but for my 'daily driver' (count this, advice on that, 'is this cancer or just a headache' kind of thing), Gemini has finally surpassed ChatGPT for me. And I used to consider it to be the worst of the bunch. I used to consider Gemini ", "context": "pays for multiple AI subscriptions", "use_case": "programming", "switched_from": "", "story": "OpenAI declares 'code red' as Google catches up in AI race"}, {"id": 802679056, "item_id": 50167441, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50167441", "by": "A_D_E_P_T", "date": "2026-10-20", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Get on the Claude Max 20x plan and use Opus 5.5 for review/orchestration", "excerpt": "The Google models are great \"general purpose\" and research LLMs, but they're relatively poor at coding. The way I see it, you have two options. 1) Get on the Claude Max 20x plan and use Opus 5.5 for review/orchestration and Haiku 5.5 for grunt work. Haiku 5.5 is decent, cheap, and fast. 2) Deepseek 4.1 Flash in OpenCode. You should also test MiMo v2.6. It's a little bit uneven, but might work well for whatever you're", "context": "", "use_case": "AI coding plan", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Best value/money AI coding plan bundle?"}, {"id": 796836273, "item_id": 49802267, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49802267", "by": "busssard", "date": "2026-09-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "especially being used to claude max from before", "excerpt": "copilot is doing the same. i just joined a corporate and they only allow copilot. i am getting brain cancer using it, especially being used to claude max from before. but cost is a thing, if i use the LLM gateway for a chatGPT-5.4 i am quickly (3 days of very light use) on 50$ in token. and everyone and their intern are using copilot. As azure has the guarantee that company data will not leak they are taking the bait", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "MiMo v2.6"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Heavy-use limits", "summary": "Some users exceed a single plan or hit 5-hour windows, and Fable burned usage quickly.", "quotes": [{"id": 784910481, "item_id": 49056905, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49056905", "by": "vidarh", "date": "2026-07-26", "stance": "compare", "quote": "The subs for those alternative providers have similar tiering but more generous token allocations than Anthropic and OpenAI", "excerpt": "The subs for those alternative providers have similar tiering but more generous token allocations than Anthropic and OpenAI, and deliver good enough quality to be worth it. If I needed to fall back on OpenRouter, it'd be paid per token, of course, but that'd take 4 major providers being down, in which case I suspect I'll have more critical things to worry about. As it is, I use more than I could with a single $200 Cl", "context": "", "use_case": "AI coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "Elevated Errors for Opus 5"}, {"id": 786197809, "item_id": 49137363, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49137363", "by": "jeffrwells", "date": "2026-08-01", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "my $100/mo Claude Max plan", "excerpt": "According to ccusage I use about $5k of tokens on my $100/mo Claude Max plan and only hit 5-hr windows where I have to switch tools for a couple hours about once a week", "context": "", "use_case": "AI coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cursor removed cost information from the usage page and CSV export"}, {"id": 796647729, "item_id": 49790483, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49790483", "by": "swalsh", "date": "2026-09-21", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used to be a Claude Max subscriber", "excerpt": "Codex has become my goto tooling. I used to be a Claude Max subscriber, but I was becoming disappointed with the quality of the output from Opus 5. Fable chewed through my usage too quickly to be practical. Moving to a Pro account w/ Codex was a big improvement. Sol had great output, and the usage was more than sufficient for most of my needs. However astra does tend to chew up usage, so when i've done to much of tha", "context": "", "use_case": "AI coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "Grok 4.7"}]}, {"label": "Declining quality", "summary": "Some left because newer models gave worse output or less work per dollar.", "quotes": [{"id": 769168403, "item_id": 48073025, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48073025", "by": "DeathArrow", "date": "2026-05-09", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I said goodbye to both Claude Max and Cursor.", "excerpt": "In terms of work done per dollar, new models from OpenAI and Anthropic are worse than the older models. They are trying to squeeze the customers. For personal use I switched to coding plans containing GLM 5.1, Kimi K2.6 and Xiaomi MiMo V2.5 Pro and I never been happier. I said goodbye to both Claude Max and Cursor.", "context": "", "use_case": "AI coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "GPT-5.5 Price Increase: What It Costs"}, {"id": 796647729, "item_id": 49790483, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49790483", "by": "swalsh", "date": "2026-09-21", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used to be a Claude Max subscriber", "excerpt": "Codex has become my goto tooling. I used to be a Claude Max subscriber, but I was becoming disappointed with the quality of the output from Opus 5. Fable chewed through my usage too quickly to be practical. Moving to a Pro account w/ Codex was a big improvement. Sol had great output, and the usage was more than sufficient for most of my needs. However astra does tend to chew up usage, so when i've done to much of tha", "context": "", "use_case": "AI coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "Grok 4.7"}]}, {"label": "Price changes", "summary": "The price has risen and commenters see the plan as subsidized and unsustainable.", "quotes": [{"id": 783579504, "item_id": 48973719, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48973719", "by": "spottedmarley", "date": "2026-07-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "If you're going to be coding A LOT just go for Claude Max.", "excerpt": "If you're going to be coding A LOT just go for Claude Max. I think it's $200 now (I got in back when it was $100) I never see limits and I use Claude Code pretty much constantly. On the other hand, I still use Opus 4.8 .. maybe Fable would hit the Max plan limit.. not sure. Max plan is sweet though", "context": "", "use_case": "heavy coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What paid AI tools are worth it for creative tech projects?"}, {"id": 790631872, "item_id": 49414492, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49414492", "by": "llm_nerd", "date": "2026-08-24", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "As someone enjoying a hilariously subsidized Max plan, I understand that", "excerpt": ">You don't feel they want to give you a dependable service for an, albeit premium, price. It's a constant bargaining game We all know that the subscription prices are not at all sustainable for these providers. You all do, right? Yes, they're struggling to segment the market and find a way to make money, and that basically relies upon emptying the pockets of whales. As someone enjoying a hilariously subsidized Max pl", "context": "Max plan subscriber", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Anthropic's best AI model struggles to attract users as cheaper tools thrive"}, {"id": 777083792, "item_id": 48567737, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48567737", "by": "suncemoje", "date": "2026-06-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "the $150 Claude Max subscription - of which I barely hit the limits anyways, even though I used it non-stop at work - still is very cost effective.", "excerpt": "Need to give that a try then. What's your experience so far? Also in terms of cost/benefit? My current hypothesis is that the $150 Claude Max subscription - of which I barely hit the limits anyways, even though I used it non-stop at work - still is very cost effective. If the price of Claude Max increased significantly (say 2-3x), and my business would balk at paying the subscription, then I'd look for an alternative", "context": "uses it non-stop at work", "use_case": "work coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "SpaceX to buy Cursor AI coding agent operator Anysphere for $60B"}]}, {"label": "Account bans", "summary": "One user reports a long-held Max account banned without explanation.", "quotes": [{"id": 765824656, "item_id": 47864041, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47864041", "by": "mdrzn", "date": "2026-04-22", "stance": "warn", "quote": "just had a Max ($200) account that I had for the last 10 months banned without explanation", "excerpt": "Same, just had a Max ($200) account that I had for the last 10 months banned without explanation, which is weird since all I use it for is to code landing pages and write emails.", "context": "", "use_case": "coding landing pages, writing emails", "switched_from": "", "story": "Anthropic bans orgs without warning"}]}, {"label": "Third-party tools", "summary": "Max was blocked for use with OpenClaw agents, forcing costlier alternatives.", "quotes": [{"id": 762217297, "item_id": 47638581, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47638581", "by": "ryaneade", "date": "2026-04-04", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "roughly 7x what I pay for Max today", "excerpt": "I've been running multiple OpenClaw agents 24/7 since January. While I saw this coming, it was still a kick in the teeth. I've been iterating through workarounds and potential solutions. My OpenClaw gateway costs are estimating roughly 7x what I pay for Max today. https://focusoverfeatures.substack.com/p/claude-max-blocks-openclaw-now-what?r=4zv5hn", "context": "", "use_case": "agent subscription", "switched_from": "", "story": "Anthropic no longer allowing Claude Code subscriptions to be used with OpenClaw"}]}, {"label": "IDE support", "summary": "One user notes it offers only a terminal or VS Code plugin rather than a full IDE.", "quotes": [{"id": 751576593, "item_id": 46973537, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46973537", "by": "theorchid", "date": "2026-02-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "So I switched to Claude Max for $100.", "excerpt": "With an ultra subscription price of $200, Cursor gives you approximately $500 worth of API requests. But even that limit isn't enough for me. So I switched to Claude Max for $100. But the problem is that I really like Cursor as an IDE, and Claude only provides a terminal or a plugin for VS Code. So I had to use Claude to write a script that proxies all requests from Cursor to the Claude Max subscription, bypassing AP", "context": "", "use_case": "AI coding subscription", "switched_from": "Cursor", "story": "Cursor switches pay-per-token when your plan limit end. Calls \"On-Demand usage\""}]}], "who": [{"by": "Roark66", "context": "uses about 1B tokens a week", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49697167", "date": "2026-09-14"}, {"by": "llm_nerd", "context": "Max plan subscriber", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49414492", "date": "2026-08-24"}, {"by": "suncemoje", "context": "uses it non-stop at work", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48567737", "date": "2026-06-17"}, {"by": "poszlem", "context": "pays for multiple AI subscriptions", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46122960", "date": "2025-12-02"}], "tags": ["for heavy coding", "for parallel agents", "for Claude Code users"], "use_cases": ["ai coding", "ai coding plan", "heavy ai coding", "infrastructure upgrades, troubleshooting", "developing a large mrp-style app", "daily coding"], "compared": [{"slug": "glm", "name": "GLM", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "kimi", "name": "Kimi", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "cursor", "name": "Cursor", "co": 2, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "claude-opus", "name": "Claude Opus", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "codex", "name": "Codex", "co": 1, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "claude-fable", "name": "Claude Fable", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "opencode", "name": "OpenCode", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50167220", "title": "Ask HN: Best value/money AI coding plan bundle?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49946321", "title": "Pop!_OS bans AI-generated code from much of its codebase", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49792730", "title": "MiMo v2.6", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49788838", "title": "Grok 4.7", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49694596", "title": "Big AI sets out its terms for regulatory capture", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49554520", "title": "Qwen 3.8 27B available on Cerebras at 1500 tokens/s", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"neutral": 1}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"neutral": 1, "warn": 1}, "2026-05": {"warn": 1}, "2026-06": {"neutral": 2, "recommend": 1}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1, "compare": 1}, "2026-08": {"neutral": 3, "recommend": 1}, "2026-09": {"neutral": 2, "recommend": 1}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 2}}, "quotes": [{"id": 802679056, "item_id": 50167441, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50167441", "by": "A_D_E_P_T", "date": "2026-10-20", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Get on the Claude Max 20x plan and use Opus 5.5 for review/orchestration", "excerpt": "The Google models are great \"general purpose\" and research LLMs, but they're relatively poor at coding. The way I see it, you have two options. 1) Get on the Claude Max 20x plan and use Opus 5.5 for review/orchestration and Haiku 5.5 for grunt work. Haiku 5.5 is decent, cheap, and fast. 2) Deepseek 4.1 Flash in OpenCode. You should also test MiMo v2.6. It's a little bit uneven, but might work well for whatever you're", "context": "", "use_case": "AI coding plan", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Best value/money AI coding plan bundle?"}, {"id": 799262448, "item_id": 49953903, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49953903", "by": "zzzeek", "date": "2026-10-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "i use claude max and ive yet to get even 30% into my quota for it.", "excerpt": "i use claude max and ive yet to get even 30% into my quota for it. so as long as that kind of deal lasts i dont think much about tokens. if i did have to think about tokens I use something like together.ai with an open weight model like glm 5.3 (which ill sometimes use to review a claude change for something intricate). glm 5.x is just very chatty though", "context": "", "use_case": "AI coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "Pop!_OS bans AI-generated code from much of its codebase"}, {"id": 796836273, "item_id": 49802267, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49802267", "by": "busssard", "date": "2026-09-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "especially being used to claude max from before", "excerpt": "copilot is doing the same. i just joined a corporate and they only allow copilot. i am getting brain cancer using it, especially being used to claude max from before. but cost is a thing, if i use the LLM gateway for a chatGPT-5.4 i am quickly (3 days of very light use) on 50$ in token. and everyone and their intern are using copilot. As azure has the guarantee that company data will not leak they are taking the bait", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "MiMo v2.6"}, {"id": 796647729, "item_id": 49790483, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49790483", "by": "swalsh", "date": "2026-09-21", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used to be a Claude Max subscriber", "excerpt": "Codex has become my goto tooling. I used to be a Claude Max subscriber, but I was becoming disappointed with the quality of the output from Opus 5. Fable chewed through my usage too quickly to be practical. Moving to a Pro account w/ Codex was a big improvement. Sol had great output, and the usage was more than sufficient for most of my needs. However astra does tend to chew up usage, so when i've done to much of tha", "context": "", "use_case": "AI coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "Grok 4.7"}, {"id": 795154674, "item_id": 49697167, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49697167", "by": "Roark66", "date": "2026-09-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "No one will give you as many input tokens for so little money as Claude Max x5", "excerpt": "Openrouter is not ideal, because you don't know who they send your traffic to and there are rumours of vendors cheating by providing quantized models. I'm very happy with Deepinfra. Less model coverage, but good prices and quite fast. However I have to caution you about one thing. No one will give you as many input tokens for so little money as Claude Max x5 (maybe x20 too, I use x5). I tend to use 1.1B to 1.4B a wee", "context": "uses about 1B tokens a week", "use_case": "heavy AI coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "Big AI sets out its terms for regulatory capture"}, {"id": 793031088, "item_id": 49564443, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49564443", "by": "Roark66", "date": "2026-09-04", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I started measuring my Claude Max x5 use", "excerpt": "Don't they have very low limits? What do people use these tiny limits for? I started measuring my Claude Max x5 use and last week (they gave me 50% more) I used 1.3B input tokens. Some 130M were cache writes, rest was cached. And 5M output. This puts things in perspective. We're taking thousands of bucks weekly even if I managed to switch to Kimi K3. What is the majority of this use? Infrastructure upgrades, troubles", "context": "heavy Claude user", "use_case": "infrastructure upgrades, troubleshooting", "switched_from": "", "story": "Qwen 3.8 27B available on Cerebras at 1500 tokens/s"}, {"id": 790631872, "item_id": 49414492, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49414492", "by": "llm_nerd", "date": "2026-08-24", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "As someone enjoying a hilariously subsidized Max plan, I understand that", "excerpt": ">You don't feel they want to give you a dependable service for an, albeit premium, price. It's a constant bargaining game We all know that the subscription prices are not at all sustainable for these providers. You all do, right? Yes, they're struggling to segment the market and find a way to make money, and that basically relies upon emptying the pockets of whales. As someone enjoying a hilariously subsidized Max pl", "context": "Max plan subscriber", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Anthropic's best AI model struggles to attract users as cheaper tools thrive"}, {"id": 786468592, "item_id": 49154287, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49154287", "by": "jwr", "date": "2026-08-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'm finding it hard to run into the limits of a Claude Max (20x) account.", "excerpt": "I hear so much about people running into token limits and using bajillions of tokens. Am I doing something wrong? I'm finding it hard to run into the limits of a Claude Max (20x) account. Well, perhaps the 50% Fable limit is something I have to be aware of, but otherwise this more than I can consume. I am the limiting factor: my capability to review code and design documents. I use it to develop a large MRP-style app", "context": "", "use_case": "developing a large MRP-style app", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Shape of Things to Come"}, {"id": 786197809, "item_id": 49137363, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49137363", "by": "jeffrwells", "date": "2026-08-01", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "my $100/mo Claude Max plan", "excerpt": "According to ccusage I use about $5k of tokens on my $100/mo Claude Max plan and only hit 5-hr windows where I have to switch tools for a couple hours about once a week", "context": "", "use_case": "AI coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cursor removed cost information from the usage page and CSV export"}, {"id": 786129424, "item_id": 49133089, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49133089", "by": "movedx01", "date": "2026-08-01", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use those every day, I have two Claude Max 20 subscription myself.", "excerpt": "Adoption absolutely did happen, I am not questioning that. What I am questioning is whether it really is the revolution the people selling it want us to believe it is. Just to disclose: I use those every day, I have two Claude Max 20 subscription myself. I am still in doubt how much more productive professionally it made me. I am having a ton of fun in exploring stuff I never would have otherwise though. I define sof", "context": "", "use_case": "daily coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "AI doesn't generate working products, that's still your job"}, {"id": 784910481, "item_id": 49056905, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49056905", "by": "vidarh", "date": "2026-07-26", "stance": "compare", "quote": "The subs for those alternative providers have similar tiering but more generous token allocations than Anthropic and OpenAI", "excerpt": "The subs for those alternative providers have similar tiering but more generous token allocations than Anthropic and OpenAI, and deliver good enough quality to be worth it. If I needed to fall back on OpenRouter, it'd be paid per token, of course, but that'd take 4 major providers being down, in which case I suspect I'll have more critical things to worry about. As it is, I use more than I could with a single $200 Cl", "context": "", "use_case": "AI coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "Elevated Errors for Opus 5"}, {"id": 783579504, "item_id": 48973719, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48973719", "by": "spottedmarley", "date": "2026-07-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "If you're going to be coding A LOT just go for Claude Max.", "excerpt": "If you're going to be coding A LOT just go for Claude Max. I think it's $200 now (I got in back when it was $100) I never see limits and I use Claude Code pretty much constantly. On the other hand, I still use Opus 4.8 .. maybe Fable would hit the Max plan limit.. not sure. Max plan is sweet though", "context": "", "use_case": "heavy coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What paid AI tools are worth it for creative tech projects?"}, {"id": 777083792, "item_id": 48567737, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48567737", "by": "suncemoje", "date": "2026-06-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "the $150 Claude Max subscription - of which I barely hit the limits anyways, even though I used it non-stop at work - still is very cost effective.", "excerpt": "Need to give that a try then. What's your experience so far? Also in terms of cost/benefit? My current hypothesis is that the $150 Claude Max subscription - of which I barely hit the limits anyways, even though I used it non-stop at work - still is very cost effective. If the price of Claude Max increased significantly (say 2-3x), and my business would balk at paying the subscription, then I'd look for an alternative", "context": "uses it non-stop at work", "use_case": "work coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "SpaceX to buy Cursor AI coding agent operator Anysphere for $60B"}, {"id": 776714244, "item_id": 48544640, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48544640", "by": "jmichaelson", "date": "2026-06-15", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "most of my usage patterns for my Claude Max 20x subscription", "excerpt": "I am working on exactly this issue right now. My approach is that a highly optimized harness (pi.dev) with the right backing knowledgebase (a custom, self-updating wiki with lots of QC layers) can get close to most of my usage patterns for my Claude Max 20x subscription. I use Gemma 4 26B QAT served by a custom fork of llama.cpp, with 4-8 slots of 256k context at Q8. It's a very good model when the harness keeps it o", "context": "", "use_case": "coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Has anyone replaced Claude/GPT with a local model for daily coding?"}, {"id": 776311472, "item_id": 48519467, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48519467", "by": "abc42", "date": "2026-06-13", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use several agents with max effort in parallel and usually end up with something like 50% weekly usage.", "excerpt": "What kind of usage chews through Claude Max x20? I use several agents with max effort in parallel and usually end up with something like 50% weekly usage. Fable almost allowed me to get to 70% but then they started resetting the limits mid-week and of course now ended the whole thing.", "context": "", "use_case": "parallel coding agents", "switched_from": "", "story": "AI Coding at Home Without Going Broke"}, {"id": 769168403, "item_id": 48073025, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48073025", "by": "DeathArrow", "date": "2026-05-09", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I said goodbye to both Claude Max and Cursor.", "excerpt": "In terms of work done per dollar, new models from OpenAI and Anthropic are worse than the older models. They are trying to squeeze the customers. For personal use I switched to coding plans containing GLM 5.1, Kimi K2.6 and Xiaomi MiMo V2.5 Pro and I never been happier. I said goodbye to both Claude Max and Cursor.", "context": "", "use_case": "AI coding", "switched_from": "", "story": "GPT-5.5 Price Increase: What It Costs"}, {"id": 765824656, "item_id": 47864041, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47864041", "by": "mdrzn", "date": "2026-04-22", "stance": "warn", "quote": "just had a Max ($200) account that I had for the last 10 months banned without explanation", "excerpt": "Same, just had a Max ($200) account that I had for the last 10 months banned without explanation, which is weird since all I use it for is to code landing pages and write emails.", "context": "", "use_case": "coding landing pages, writing emails", "switched_from": "", "story": "Anthropic bans orgs without warning"}, {"id": 762217297, "item_id": 47638581, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47638581", "by": "ryaneade", "date": "2026-04-04", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "roughly 7x what I pay for Max today", "excerpt": "I've been running multiple OpenClaw agents 24/7 since January. While I saw this coming, it was still a kick in the teeth. I've been iterating through workarounds and potential solutions. My OpenClaw gateway costs are estimating roughly 7x what I pay for Max today. https://focusoverfeatures.substack.com/p/claude-max-blocks-openclaw-now-what?r=4zv5hn", "context": "", "use_case": "agent subscription", "switched_from": "", "story": "Anthropic no longer allowing Claude Code subscriptions to be used with OpenClaw"}, {"id": 751576593, "item_id": 46973537, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46973537", "by": "theorchid", "date": "2026-02-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "So I switched to Claude Max for $100.", "excerpt": "With an ultra subscription price of $200, Cursor gives you approximately $500 worth of API requests. But even that limit isn't enough for me. So I switched to Claude Max for $100. But the problem is that I really like Cursor as an IDE, and Claude only provides a terminal or a plugin for VS Code. So I had to use Claude to write a script that proxies all requests from Cursor to the Claude Max subscription, bypassing AP", "context": "", "use_case": "AI coding subscription", "switched_from": "Cursor", "story": "Cursor switches pay-per-token when your plan limit end. Calls \"On-Demand usage\""}, {"id": 737967362, "item_id": 46122960, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46122960", "by": "poszlem", "date": "2025-12-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's still not there for programming, where I use Claude Max", "excerpt": "To be honest, this is the first month in almost a year when I didn't pay for ChatGPT Pro and instead went for Gemini Ultra. It's still not there for programming, where I use Claude Max, but for my 'daily driver' (count this, advice on that, 'is this cancer or just a headache' kind of thing), Gemini has finally surpassed ChatGPT for me. And I used to consider it to be the worst of the bunch. I used to consider Gemini ", "context": "pays for multiple AI subscriptions", "use_case": "programming", "switched_from": "", "story": "OpenAI declares 'code red' as Google catches up in AI race"}, {"id": 736979601, "item_id": 46061225, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46061225", "by": "hamasho", "date": "2025-11-26", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I don't burn all the tokens out of my Claude Max plan", "excerpt": "Honestly, I sometimes use heavy thinking models only to avoid wasting tokens on my expensive pro plans. In many cases, I prefer using quicker models to discuss something, gain better ideas about the topic, do \"my own research\" using Google, then discuss again. ChatGPT Pro mode is helpful, but it's too slow, and I have no idea what they say is true (even with sources) or I'm familiar with the topic so I can research f", "context": "", "use_case": "coding agents", "switched_from": "", "story": "Investors expect AI use to soar. That's not happening"}]}