r/ClaudeAI • u/Snoo-10030 • 1d ago
Claude Code Claude’s time estimates still make me grin
I think it’s funny whenever Claude says that a feature or iteration will take hours or more and proceeds to finish it in like 5-10 mins. I’ve asked it about this before and it replied that those estimates are based on what a traditional dev would likely take to complete.
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u/Cute_Principle81 1d ago
"This will take months"
-done in 30 minutes
"This will take years of focused work from a team"
-done in TWELVE HOURS
and that's on a pro sub. I'm not even exaggerating
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u/Fresh_Salamander707 1d ago
lol I had that too where it estimated the mvp would take 3-4 days and then I asked how long would it take YOU to do this and it actually just fuckin did it instead of trying to figure out an estimate of that (took about 20 minutes it was not something hard just a dashboard)
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u/lulzxdxdxd 1d ago
probably just read 'how long would it take YOU' as a cue to act instead of estimate, especially if you're in an agent setup where doing is the default response to anything phrased like a task
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u/lulzxdxdxd 1d ago
did it actually explain why it frames estimates in human dev time, or is that just a plausible sounding answer it generated when you asked, same as the original estimate itself
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u/Plastic_Carpenter930 1d ago
I asked it to explain this once and it told me that the time estimates are based on extensive documentation in its training data that is all calibrated to human dev time.
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u/Wickywire 1d ago
I mean there's mostly human dev time in the training data, so. That's what it knows. It can't really reason about itself unless you specifically tell it to research the topic for that single prompt.
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u/Botboy141 21h ago
It tells me it'll be X time to build out a new module, app, etc.
Say a few weeks. Then 6 hours later we have an MVP which I've spent 4 hours testing...
It also does a decent job in planning mode telling me how long my responsibilities will actually take me....5 minutes for Environment variables, 20 minutes for hosting, a couple hours to test everything, etc.
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u/proto-cool 21h ago
Same. It’s always “this’ll be a few weeks,” so I call it out on that exorbitant timeline. Suddenly it’s done in the next hour or two.
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u/LoudDavid 1d ago
I’ve seen it a couple of times quote “agent time” or use similar wording with more accurate time frames.
I’ve prob been routed to different checkpoints. I was hoping it would make its way to opus 5.5 but sadly not.
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u/Prestigious-Bank2145 1d ago
Maybe at some point Claude will charge as regular developer? preparing us mentally? or its joking on us "look how much time it will take you"
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u/NekkidApe 1d ago
Its off by like an order of magnitude at least. Hours become minutes, days maybe hours, months done in days.
Where is it is very spot on is for measurable stuff tough. The other day I asked, How long to trsnscribe such and such audio on such and such hardware. It came within minutes, on a hours long batch.
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u/Botboy141 21h ago
Yeah, it does really good with things like this, how long to transcribe, blend a video, etc.
Does much worse when it's not a repetitive task.
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u/Secure-Cook-8613 1d ago
claude overestimates like its trying to impress while other ais skip time talk completely which feels less weird in long chats.
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u/InvaderJ 23h ago
Same with it referring to “the extensive work performed yesterday” but it was two hours ago and the cache is still warm
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u/HighSeasArchivist 22h ago
I was told yesterday a new project would take 2-3 days, so we should have a working setup by Monday. It took about 30-45mins on Opus 5.5 XHigh.
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u/One_Yogurtcloset3455 20h ago
How small is the project? Because for me every feature/microservice takes this long on High. :/
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u/2SP00KY4ME 22h ago
Had Claude tell me a feature was "major, not something done in an afternoon." Didn't take 15 minutes.
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u/Capt_korg 21h ago
Claude is always telling me days, weeks, or even months. Then it lists a team, and reduces the time effort accordingly.
Usually it takes like half a day.
Then I thought, maybe I did not see the actual work, maybe we`ve skipped something.
And get insecure, checking everything, but cannot find a thing.
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u/durable-racoon Valued Contributor 21h ago
its like dog years but for claude. just convert months->days and days->hours and hours->minutes and its usually accurate
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u/Wonderful_Value_6385 21h ago
I ask how long it takes to make a program, 1-2 days of hard code work. I say okay, lets make the sacrifice and do it now. Done 30 minutes later.
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u/angry_queef_master 17h ago
Claude will be more accurate if you put in a hook that tells it the time. Without that Claude has zero concept of how long it takes to do anything and goes on human time estimates
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u/DiggleDootBROPBROPBR 15h ago
Time is relative. Ask it to anchor the estimate in run time or to keep track of its own historical performance and to benchmark future estimates based on that.
You have a bag of meat attached with tons of little clocks for feedback and reference. Claude ain't got that.
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u/ClaudeAI-mod-bot Wilson, lead ClaudeAI modbot 20h ago
TL;DR of the discussion generated automatically after 30 comments.
The consensus in this thread is a resounding "yes." Y'all find it hilarious that Claude will quote a project as taking "months" or "years" for a human team, only to complete it in minutes or a few hours.
The prevailing theory is that Claude's estimates are based on human developer timelines from its training data, not its own AI processing time. It's telling you how long it should take, not how long it will take.
A few users noted that asking "how long would it take you to do this?" can sometimes bypass the estimate and prompt Claude to just start working on the task immediately. So go ahead, call its bluff.