Anthropic hit with lawsuit over how it marketed Claude Max subscriptions: Here is what happened
Follow UsAnthropic is facing a lawsuit from a Claude subscriber.
The user claims that the company misled customers about the usage limits of its premium Claude Max subscription plans.
"The actual usage provided by the Max 5x and Max 20x plans is far below the advertised amount of usage," the lawsuit alleges.
Anthropic is facing a lawsuit from a Claude subscriber. The user claims that the company misled customers about the usage limits of its premium Claude Max subscription plans. As per reports, Washington DC resident Karl Kahn alleged in the lawsuit that Anthropic promised more usage than customers actually receive under its Claude Max plans.
SurveyThe lawsuit claims that the real usage limits for the Max 5x and Max 20x subscriptions are difficult to understand and appear to be lower than what Anthropic advertises.
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Currently, Anthropic offers three paid subscription plans. The most affordable option is Claude Pro, which starts at $17 per month. The company says the plan provides “at least five times the usage per session compared to our free service” during busy periods. Anthropic also notes that usage depends on several factors, including message length, attached files, conversation history, and the model being used.
In April 2025, Anthropic introduced two higher-priced plans: Max 5x and Max 20x. These subscriptions cost $100 and $200 per month, respectively. The company says they offer up to five times and 20 times higher usage limits than the Pro plan.
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However, the lawsuit claims users do not actually receive the amount of access suggested by the company’s marketing. “The actual usage provided by the Max 5x and Max 20x plans is far below the advertised amount of usage,” the lawsuit alleges.
Kahn upgraded to the Max 20x plan after starting to use Claude Code, Anthropic’s coding assistant. He claims he quickly began running into weekly usage restrictions. According to the lawsuit, one coding session lasting about five hours consumed 15 percent of his entire weekly allowance.
The lawsuit seeks class-action status on behalf of other US customers who purchased a Claude Max subscription since the plans were launched.
Also read: Anthropic wants Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 back online, sends execs to US for talks
Meanwhile, Anthropic is also dealing with a separate controversy which involves its latest AI models. Last week, the company launched Claude Fable 5, its first Mythos-class AI model for general use, alongside Mythos 5. However, just days after the rollout, Anthropic pulled access to both models globally due to an export control order issued by the US government.
While the company complied with the order, the company disagreed with the decision. In a blog post, Anthropic said, “We disagree that the finding of a narrow potential jailbreak should be cause for recalling a commercial model deployed to hundreds of millions of people. If this standard was applied across the industry, we believe it would essentially halt all new model deployments for all frontier model providers.” “We apologise for this disruption to our customers. We believe this is a misunderstanding and are working to restore access as soon as possible.”
