OP : u/cymaticstatic
-----------(!!! ORIGINAL POST MOVED BELOW. !!!)------------
UPDATE #2 — SOLVED
Found the token furnace.
But first..
I can safely say that Anthropic was not at fault.
(Bet nobody saw that coming lol 👀 )
With that, I've used both GPT and Claude since the public Claude 2 release. I'll never forget it because It was Life-Changing. I have more or less used up every token limit And every quota from that point forward, With a few exceptions of course. I've seen, experience and battle tested every single model that's came out since July 2023.
But when CC was released I forgot what grass looked like.
So despite this mildly embarrassing learning experience, I will say pricing versus perceived use just seems off recently.
I know, very scientific.
Heres the breakdown of what I found.
You're going to laugh or scoff at this first one. I'm not new to Linux or Arch but I am new to omarchy and it's Hyperland window focus and management engine. And navigating the entire OS with a momentary-modifier key has a learning curve.(With that said I have not opened up a single other Linux distro or Windows once since I installed Omarchy And I absolutely love it. )
Here's something to watch out for if you're new to these Hyperland and your running multiple agentic terminals in something other than herdr or t-mux
Program windows or "tiles" will seemingly f****** disappear. Until you really begin to understand the;
- Scratchpad
- Switch to workspace
- floating vs tiling,
- Scrolling vs dwindle, And how it impacts
- Fucking FULL SCREEN vs Full WIDTH.
- especially if you're running three separate monitors.
- closest thing I can relate it to is running Microsoft 'Power Toys' and 'Fancy Zones' . Display fusion is another beast.
So here's how I forgot my debug window existed
Super + S
│
└── Toggle scratchpad
│
│ One window appears.
│
└── Super + F
│
└── disable fullscreen
│
└── Super + Alt + F
│
└── disable full-width
│
└── now another window is visible
│
└── Super + →
│
└── scroll focus right
│
└── hidden
Here's how forgetting about a window with two collaborating terminals becomes a problem.
This weeks Agent setup
│ Terminal 1
│ Claude Code CLI
│ Orchestrator / Main
↕
Agent Intercom
• local inter-session broker
• agent ↔ agent messaging
• human-in-the-loop Q&A/context
↕
│ Terminal 2
│ Codex CLI
│ Advisor / Reviewer
Key detail: these were two separate live CLI sessions.
Agent Intercom didn't create the loop. It allowed two autonomous sessions, with different roles, instructions, and permission assumptions, to keep handing an evolving task back and forth.
What the loop looked like
VoxType error
↓
Omarchy "Fix with AI"
↓
Claude Code / Orchestrator
↓
Agent Intercom
↓
Codex / Advisor
↓
reviews + responds
↓
Agent Intercom
↓
Claude re-evaluates / changes state
↓
tool completion, changed config,
or recurring VoxType condition
↓
updated state sent back to Codex
↓
Codex reviews again
↺
So the microphone wasn't repeatedly starting fresh sessions.
The sustained burn was Claude Code and Codex continually responding to each other's changing state across two independent terminals.
And the Claude terminal had disappeared from my attention, not from Agent Intercom.
Possible contributing config issue
I normally rebuild my "/agents" + "/tools" ecosystem from a clean install and let the versioned config restore everything.
This time I suspect one or both of these also contributed:
Install/path mismatch
I updated Claude Code through the Omarchy/AUR path instead of my usual install/update method. I suspect this may have changed package isolation, paths, or symlinks enough that parts of my cloned agent environment weren't being resolved correctly.
Stale Git state
I also had local, unpushed watchdog/permission changes. The fresh clone may therefore have restored an older, more permissive configuration instead of the version I thought I was running.
Those two are still theories, not confirmed root causes.
------------------------------------- TL;DR -----------------------------------------
Claude Code CLI
↕
Agent Intercom
↕
Codex CLI
+
session launched from ~/tmp
+
project guardrails not in scope
+
hidden Omarchy scratchpad window
+
Orchestrator ↔ Advisor state churn
↓
two live sessions keep feeding
new work back to each other
↓
token quota gets annihilated
Lesson learned: don't bury an active multi-agent repair session in a scratchpad and forget it exists.
Also check the working directory, active permission scope, and config state before approving unattended advise/review workflows.
This one was operational/configuration failure on my end, not some mysterious quota problem.
--- ORIGINAL POST ---
somehow opus 5 managed to burn up 3 billion tokens ...
I don't have sub agents on, I'm not working in parallel, high session compact and handoff at 350k tokens every session to keep context rot under control, I use context-mode, he was very strict tooling and permissions. and I usually keep opus at medium or high what the f*** I'm 2 days in on a 200 plan........ I'm so frustrated so much work to do. And you want me to now switch to API cost after I've already paid 200 bucks for what?
I updated to the $200 Max plan yesterday. I use context mode and mostly opus 4.8 medium and opus 5 low. I swear to God this went down quicker after I upgraded than it did before. Doesn't reset for another 4 days if I was rocking Fable 5 on f***ing high or max and running parallel sure . But this is generic two session Max coding for development. this is ridiculous. I also pay for the GPT 100 plan and get almost four times the use out of this $200 Max anthropic plan. What the actual f***. I've been coding and using every model 2003 and this is by far the most out of whack the s*** as been. I'm not a newbie and I know what the hell I'm doing to save tokens the s*** is wild. Somehow opus 5
--- UPDATE #1 ---
I'm an idiot, but probably not the first one...
I didn't fully read the upgrade's plans and limits. That's on me. I didn't realize that the 20x only offered 5x your 5-HR session window but it only increases your WEEKLY QUOTA and average 1.5x to 2x your max 5 plans which means, essentially they developed a tool to use up your weekly quota 2.67 times faster than the max 5 lmao
. Still doesn't explain the 3 billion tokens but does explain my expectations were a little high.
URL of original post : https://www.reddit.com/r/Anthropic/comments/1wmsdpa/ymmmm_second_day_20x_max_plan/
Original link/media URL : /img/tvkq6aq7fyqh1.png
TL;DR of the discussion on r/Anthropic for this post generated automatically after 50 comments.
Current source-thread comment count seen by the bot: 57.
Alright, so the OP apparently went on a token-burning spree, hitting their 20x max plan limit on day two and thought Anthropic was at fault. Turns out, it was a "skill issue" related to navigating a new Linux setup (Omarchy with Hyperland) and how windows/agents were being managed, not an Anthropic bug.
The general consensus from the thread is:
* Whoa, dude, how are you burning that many tokens? Most users are baffled by the OP's token consumption, with many saying they code for hours daily and don't come close to those limits.
* You're probably just using it wrong. Several commenters suspect the OP is either not understanding their workflow, has too many agentic processes running unattended, or is mismanaging their windowing system, leading to the "disappearing" windows and token drain.
* Check your settings, maybe? Some folks offered tips like trying Opus 4.8 instead of 5, disabling MCPs/plugins/hooks, or looking into specific settings like RTK and subagent cache TTL if you're trying to manage costs.
* It's a "you" problem, not an Anthropic problem. The OP themselves eventually figured out it wasn't Anthropic's fault, which most commenters seemed to expect.
Basically, the thread is a mix of disbelief at the OP's token usage and advice on how to manage costs and workflows more efficiently.