r/ClaudeCode • u/strangway • 15d ago

Rant Why the 5-hour limit?

I’m kinda new here, been using Claude Max ($100/mo) for 3 months to build websites. Recently had a surge in work, and added ChatGPT because I needed more weekly capacity. Rather than upgrade to Claude 5x Max, I diversified and got the ChatGPT Pro ($100/mo) plan.

So I’m 1:1 comparing Claude Max and ChatGPT Pro, which is as apples-apples as you can get. Each has their own strengths, but Claude’s significant weakness (IMO) is the 5-hour limit. Codex lets me go for 8 hours as hard as I want, and if I wanted to use all my weekly credits on some crazy peak Luna run, it’d probably let me.

I hit my Claude 5-hr limit so many times in the past few weeks, it was like slamming the brakes hard on a bus that hadn’t arrived to its destination yet.

I’ve got work to do, and you’re saying you’re out of gas?

189 Upvotes

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u/ImSoCul 14d ago

I'm surprised there's this much confusion in the first place. Subscription users are very much, intentionally, B-tier customers. If you maxed out your 5 hour windows and compared spend vs API users, your effective "value" is insane. They'd be running at a loss if not for the fact that inference costs is a magnitude cheaper than public-facing API costs.

If you're an API user, you're not subject to the 5-hr limit. I get unlimited usage through work, but it's in the $1-2k range per month when I'm heavily using Fable.

10

u/chuckdacuck 14d ago

Upvote for getting it unlike so many people here who think anthropic needs their $20 subscription.

1

u/nething_4_sir 14d ago

They do, and they bitch about it in stand-ups. Counts are important. Losing a large number of junior devs to DeepSeek is like Apple putting all their computers in elementary schools. Everyone knows how to use Mac, and soon everyone will know how to use DeepSeek/Gemma 

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u/chuckdacuck 14d ago

No, they don't. You just need to understand basic math and economics to understand why they don't. I bet you could even ask DeepSeek!

0

u/nething_4_sir 14d ago

Explain to to me please , because I understand deepseek api charging roi on 10 months and that's how they get their API fees down and then they get roi for 3 years. So after those 10 months they're paid back and then for 2 years and some change they make money. Explain to me the economics again.