• Introduction of Claude Max: On Wednesday, Anthropic launched a new subscription tier called Claude Max with prices ranging from $100 to $200 per month. It offers expanded usage limits for the Claude AI assistant. This came after many existing Claude subscribers complained about frequently hitting rate limits.
• User Feedback: A news release by Anthropic stated that the top request from active users was expanded Claude access. User feedback on Reddit confirmed that many Claude users have been unhappy with Anthropic's usage limits even on the $20-per-month Claude Pro plan.
• Context Window Issue: One downside of Claude is that its relatively large context window fills up usage limits quickly when having long conversations or including many reference documents. Each time the user adds to the conversation, the entire text is fed back into the AI model and re-evaluated. But a large context window allows Claude to process more complex projects within each session.
• Plan Details: The new Max plan has two flavors - a $100-per-month option with five times more usage than the $20 "Pro" plan and a $200-per-month tier with 20 times more usage than Pro. Anthropic calls the higher tier "Maximum Flexibility" and targets "daily users who collaborate often with Claude for most tasks."
• Pricing War with OpenAI: The highest Max plan matches OpenAI's $200 ["Pro" plan for ChatGPT](https://arstechnica.com/ai/2024/12/openais-new-200-mo-chatgpt-subscription-will-buy-you-more-compute-time/), which promises "unlimited" access to OpenAI's models. OpenAI introduced this plan in December as a higher tier above its $20 "ChatGPT Plus" subscription.
• Other Features: Claude Max subscribers will get priority access to unspecified new features and models as they are rolled out. They will also have higher output limits for "better and richer responses and Artifacts" and receive "priority access during high traffic periods," suggesting a tiered queue system.
• Full Subscription Lineup: Anthropic's subscription lineup includes a free tier for basic access, the $18-20 "Pro" tier for everyday use, and the $100-200 "Max" tier for intensive usage, similar to OpenAI's ChatGPT subscription structure. The new Max plan is available immediately in all regions where Claude operates.