Claude Max vs Ultra (2026): What Renamed, What You Get at $100 and $200

How we checked: every number and limit below comes from Claude's pricing page (claude.com/pricing) and Anthropic's Claude Help Center articles on the Max plan, the Ultra plan, usage and length limits, Fable models, and monthly API credits, all read on November 5, 2026. Prices are in US dollars for web subscriptions before tax; mobile App Store or Google Play prices can differ. Sources are listed at the end. We have no affiliate relationship with Anthropic. Anthropic can change prices and limits at its discretion, so check Settings > Usage on your own account before you upgrade.

The short answer

Max 20x was renamed Ultra. Existing Max 20x subscribers moved to Ultra automatically at the same $200 a month. Max (the former Max 5x) stays at $100 a month.
Max is still 5x Pro usage every 5 hours and every week. You get a rolling five-hour session limit and a weekly limit.
Ultra is 10x Pro usage every week, and verified Ultra accounts have no five-hour limit. If your Ultra account isn't verified yet, a temporary five-hour-style limit applies until Anthropic verifies you automatically.
Both include monthly Claude Platform API credits: $100 on Max, $200 on Ultra. Those credits do not refill Claude chat, Claude Code, or Cowork when you hit plan limits.
Fable is included on Max and Ultra for up to half your weekly limit; it draws from the same weekly pool and uses it faster than other Claude models.
Both are monthly-only on the web. Only Pro (and Team) offer an annual discount; Max and Ultra do not.

What changed from Max 5x / Max 20x

Anthropic used to sell Max as two tiers labeled by session multiples: Max 5x at $100 and Max 20x at $200. The Help Center now describes a single Max plan at $100 and a separate Ultra plan at $200.

Old name	New name	Price	What the Help Center says now
Max 5x	Max	$100/mo	5x Pro usage every 5 hours and every week
Max 20x	Ultra	$200/mo	10x Pro usage every week; no 5-hour limit for verified accounts

Ultra's Help Center page states the rename explicitly: "The Max 20x plan is now called the Ultra plan. Existing Max 20x subscribers move to Ultra automatically, with no price change." The practical change for heavy users is the missing five-hour cap on verified Ultra accounts, not a price cut or hike.

Side-by-side: Pro, Max, and Ultra

From claude.com/pricing and the Max / Ultra Help Center articles, November 5, 2026.

	Pro	Max	Ultra
Web price	$20/mo, or $17/mo billed annually ($200 up front)	$100/mo	$200/mo
Billing	Monthly or annual	Monthly only	Monthly only
Usage vs Pro	Baseline paid plan (more than Free every 5 hours and every week)	5x Pro every 5 hours and every week	10x Pro every week
5-hour session limit	Yes	Yes	No, for verified accounts; temporary limit if not yet verified
Weekly limit	Yes	Yes	Yes
Fable (Anthropic's top consumer models)	Paid with usage credits (not included in plan limits)	Included up to 50% of weekly limits	Included up to 50% of weekly limits
Monthly Claude Platform API credits	None	$100	$200
Claude Code	Included	Included	Included
Priority / early access	—	Yes	Yes

Anthropic does not publish a message count for any plan. How fast you burn through a limit depends on model, conversation length, files, tools, connectors, and effort level. Claude on the web, Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Claude Cowork, and Claude Mobile share one usage pool.

The five-hour limit (and who loses it)

On Pro and Max, usage resets on a rolling five-hour window and again on a weekly schedule. The weekly reset is a fixed day and time assigned to your account; you can see the next reset under Settings > Usage.

On Ultra, the Help Center's key benefit is: "No five-hour limit for verified accounts" — you work inside the weekly budget at your own pace. Verification is automatic from factors like account and payment history. Phone verification at checkout is a separate step and does not clear this limit. To check: if Settings > Usage shows no "Current session" bar, Anthropic says your account is verified. Unverified Ultra accounts keep a temporary limit until verification finishes.

Hitting a limit still means wait for the reset, upgrade, buy usage credits (extra chat/Code usage at API rates), or, if you have one, use a limit-reset credit. Anthropic also notes that extra capacity limits can apply at its discretion to manage load.

Fable on Max and Ultra

On Max and Ultra (and Premium Team / seat-based Enterprise seats), Fable 5 and Fable 5.1 are a standard part of the plan. You can spend up to 50% of your weekly usage limits on Fable at no extra cost. That Fable use still counts against the same weekly pool, and Anthropic says Fable uses the pool faster than other Claude models. When you hit the Fable share, you can keep going on Fable with usage credits, or switch to another model and stay inside the plan allowance.

On Pro, Fable runs on pay-as-you-go usage credits from the start; it is not included in Pro's plan limits. A one-time Fable 5 promotion that let some plans use up to 50% of weekly limits on Fable for free ended on July 19, 2026, and never covered Fable 5.1.

The $100 / $200 API credits (and what they are not)

Max includes $100 a month in Claude Platform credits; Ultra includes $200. You claim them by linking one Claude Console organization under Settings > Billing (after seven days on an eligible plan). Credits refresh each billing cycle, do not roll over, are spent before purchased Console credits, and are shared by every API key in that organization.

They cover: the Claude API (Messages and Message Batches), the Console Playground, Claude Managed Agents, and the Claude Agent SDK (including claude -p when you run it with a Console API key).

They do not cover: interactive Claude Code in the terminal, IDE, desktop, or web; extra usage in Claude, Claude Code, or Cowork after you hit plan limits; or Claude on Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud Vertex AI, or Microsoft Foundry.

So Ultra's $200 API credit is useful if you also build agents or apps on the Claude Platform. It will not make a Claude Code marathon last longer once the weekly plan limit is gone.

Which plan to pick

Stay on Pro ($20, or $17/mo annual) if a few deep sessions a day are enough, you mainly use Opus / Sonnet / Haiku, and you are fine paying separately when you want Fable.
Choose Max ($100/mo) if you regularly hit Pro's five-hour or weekly wall, want Fable inside the plan up to half the weekly pool, and like $100 of Platform credits for side projects.
Choose Ultra ($200/mo) if you run long Claude Code or Cowork sessions and the five-hour reset is the thing that stops you — and your account is (or will soon be) verified. The weekly budget is still finite at 10x Pro; Ultra is not unlimited.

If you are choosing between Claude and ChatGPT at the $100–$200 tier, see our Claude Code vs Codex and ChatGPT vs Claude vs Perplexity pricing pages; those cover the cross-product tradeoffs rather than this Max-vs-Ultra rename.

Sources

Claude pricing — Free / Pro / Max / Ultra plan cards, usage table, Fable and API credit rows (checked Nov 5, 2026)
What is the Max plan? — $100/mo, 5x Pro every 5 hours and every week, monthly-only, API credits (checked Nov 5, 2026)
What is the Ultra plan? — rename from Max 20x, $200/mo, 10x Pro weekly, verified accounts, no 5-hour limit (checked Nov 5, 2026)
How do usage and length limits work? — shared pool across products; verified Ultra has no five-hour limit (checked Nov 5, 2026)
Claude Fable models on your plan — Max/Ultra include Fable up to 50% of weekly limits; Pro uses usage credits (checked Nov 5, 2026)
Monthly API credits for Max, Ultra, and Team plans — $100 / $200 amounts, claim rules, what credits cover and exclude (checked Nov 5, 2026)