1. What happened
According to ITmedia NEWS, Anthropic announced on October 30, 2026 (US time) that it had renamed the paid individual plans for Claude. The $100-a-month "Max 5x" became "Max" and the $200-a-month "Max 20x" became "Ultra"; prices are unchanged and existing subscribers move over without any action (ITmedia NEWS).
The main change is that Ultra no longer applies the 5-hour usage limit to verified accounts. Anthropic's pricing page describes Max as 5x Pro usage every 5 hours and every week, and Ultra as 10x Pro's weekly usage with no 5-hour limit for verified accounts. The monthly API credit is $100 on Max and $200 on Ultra (Claude pricing page). Weekly limits remain. ITmedia NEWS reports that relatively new accounts keep a temporary limit until verification is done, to prevent abuse (ITmedia NEWS).
The numbers need careful reading. ITmedia NEWS points out that the old "20x" in Max 20x referred to usage per 5-hour window, while the new plan's "10x" refers to weekly usage, so the baselines differ and it cannot simply be called a cut or an increase (ITmedia NEWS). Anthropic's help page also states that Max has both a 5-hour limit and weekly limits, and that other limits may be applied to manage capacity (Anthropic Help).
2. What it means for small businesses
This change concerns individual plans; companies that give Claude to staff have separate business plans such as Team. Still, many firms have a few people who hand long coding or document jobs to a personally paid Claude, and the problem of hitting a 5-hour cap mid-task is eased on the $200 plan.
Anthropic's pricing page says Claude Code is included in all paid plans and shares the same usage pool as chat. For heavy coding sessions, users can also switch to pay-as-you-go API credits (Claude pricing page). This means someone drafting documents in chat and someone having it write code draw on the same allowance, so as headcount grows it becomes harder to see who used how much.
Our view We expect AI price lists to change names and units every few months. A "x times more usage" figure cannot be compared once the baseline changes, so before choosing a plan, record for one or two weeks how much your own work actually uses per week. Moving to a higher plan without that record means paying $200 a month for capacity you may not use. Conversely, if staff on personal cards open extra accounts whenever they hit a cap, nobody can say which account holds customer data. Whether you have actual usage figures and a list of accounts allowed to hold work data by the next renewal will decide both your costs and your control over information.
3. What to check now
- List who in the company pays for Claude personally and on which plan (Pro, Max or Ultra)
- Record weekly usage for one or two weeks and separate whether you hit the 5-hour limit or the weekly limit
- Check under your internal rules that no work data (customer lists, quotes, contracts) is going into personal accounts
- If several people use it, compare business plans such as Team on the official page instead of stacking personal subscriptions
- The Ultra change applies to verified accounts, so check your own status on the Usage screen in Settings
Our outlook
Over the next six months to two years, we expect AI use to shift from a tool that a person subscribes to monthly to agents that keep running and handle work inside the company. Removing a cap, as in this change, is one step in that direction. The longer a job can run without stopping, the more is handed over, and the company handing it over needs rules on which data may be given and who checks the results. Rather than reacting to small price changes, firms that first set up usage records and data-handling rules will be better placed, because those two things carry over to whichever plan or vendor they use next year. Firms that wait until the work is already running on AI will have to write the rules under pressure, with customer data already in many accounts. Now is the time to lay the groundwork.
Questions this article answers
What changed when Claude's Max 20x became Ultra?
The name changed and the $200 monthly price stays. Verified accounts no longer have the 5-hour limit, and get 10x Pro's weekly usage plus $200 of monthly API credit. Weekly limits remain. The old 20x was a per-5-hour figure, so the baselines differ.
Should I use an individual or business Claude plan for work?
If several people handle customer data or quotes, compare the price and admin features of business plans such as Team on the official page rather than stacking personal subscriptions. With personal accounts it is hard to know which account holds work data. Start by listing users and usage.
Sources
- Plans & Pricing | Claude by Anthropicclaude.com
- Anthropic、「Claude」の「Max 20x」を「Ultra」に名称変更 月200ドルで5時間ごとの利用制限を撤廃（ITmedia NEWS）itmedia.co.jp
- What is the Max plan? | Claude Help Centersupport.claude.com
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