Anthropic Launches Claude Max: A $200 Monthly AI Plan for Power Users

After months of user complaints, Anthropic debuts new $200/month AI plan

On Wednesday, Anthropic introduced a new $100- to $200-per-month subscription tier called Claude Max that offers expanded usage limits for its Claude AI assistant. The new plan arrives after many existing Claude subscribers complained of hitting rate limits frequently. "The top request from our most active users has been expanded Claude access," wrote Anthropic in a news release. A brief stroll through user feedback on Reddit seems to confirm that sentiment, showing that many Claude users have been unhappy with Anthropic's usage limits over the past year -- even on the Claude Pro plan, which costs $20 a month. One of the downsides of a relatively large context window with Claude (the amount of text it can process at once) has been that long conversations or inclusions of many reference documents (such as code files) fill up usage limits quickly. That's because each time the user adds to the conversation, the entire text of the conversation (including any attached documents) is fed back into the AI model again and re-evaluated. But on the other hand, a large context window allows Claude to process more complex projects within each session. The new Max plan comes in two variations: a $100-per-month option that provides five times more usage than the $20 "Pro" plan, and a $200-per-month tier that offers 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."

Anthropic rolls out a $200-per-month Claude subscription | TechCrunch

Anthropic announced on Wednesday that it's launching a new, very expensive subscription plan for its AI chatbot Claude: Max. An answer to OpenAI's $200-a-month ChatGPT Pro tier, Max comes with higher usage limits than Anthropic's $20-per-month Claude Pro subscription as well as priority access to the company's newest AI models and features. A bit confusingly, Max comes in two flavors with different price points and usage limits. There's a $100-per-month Max tier with 5x higher rate limits than Claude Pro and a $200-per-month Max option with 20x higher rate limits. Frontier AI model developers are looking for new ways to increase revenue -- and selling power users an expensive AI subscription seems like a promising way to do it. Just two months after launching ChatGPT Pro, OpenAI reportedly told investors its annualized revenue grew by $300 million. Should Anthropic's new Max plan be similarly successful, it could give the company a much-needed boost. Anthropic's product lead Scott White told TechCrunch in an interview that the company is not ruling out launching even pricier subscriptions someday. Notably, Anthropic still doesn't have an unlimited usage plan, which OpenAI offers with ChatGPT Pro. When asked whether Anthropic would ever consider launching a $500-per-month Claude plan, White said, "We'll always keep a number of exploratory options available to us." User feedback will continue to guide Anthropic's product roadmap, he added. To meet the massive costs of developing frontier AI models, Anthropic is exploring various new revenue channels, one of which is Claude for Education. Claude for Education targets university customers, providing specific capabilities and benefits for colleges. Anthropic declined to tell TechCrunch how many Claude subscriptions it has sold to date. However, White said the company's new Claude 3.7 Sonnet AI model has created "a lot of demand" for its products. Claude 3.7 Sonnet is Anthropic's first reasoning model, a type of model that uses more computing power than traditional models to answer certain questions more reliably.

Anthropic launches a $200 per month tier for "power users

Kylie Robison is a senior AI reporter working with The Verge's policy and tech teams. She previously worked at Fortune Magazine and Business Insider. Anthropic just announced a new premium tier called "Claude Max" that significantly increases usage limits for "power users" who've been maxing out their existing plans. The new offering comes with two options: a $100 per month tier with 5x more usage than the Pro plan, and a $200 per month tier with 20x more usage. According to Anthropic product exec Scott White, the Max plan was created in direct response to customers who've deeply integrated Claude into their professional workflows and keep hitting rate limits. "We want to give people choice on the type of plan that they can use to get the scale of usage that they want," White told The Verge. The company is positioning Max between its individual plans (Free and $20 / month for Pro) and its enterprise offerings. It's specifically targeting professionals who expense Claude rather than accessing it through company-wide deployments. "This is a new way that power users can get access, often for professional use cases, without needing the entire business to have an enterprise plan already," White explained. While White wouldn't provide concrete numbers for what these increased limits actually mean in terms of messages per day or tokens per month, he framed it as "units of consumption" that scale with the Pro plan. When asked what Max users could accomplish that Pro users can't, he painted a picture of all-day usage: "Imagine you're basically doing your entire role by generating outputs on Claude -- we wanted people to do that." The launch follows Anthropic's recent release of Claude 3.7 Sonnet, which the company describes as its "most intelligent model to date." The timing isn't coincidental -- more powerful models combined with new features like web search and agentic coding likely drive deeper adoption and higher usage demands. It's also a direct competitor to the $200 a month tier OpenAI launched back in December. Max subscribers will also get priority access to new features before they roll out to other users, though White was tight-lipped about what those might be. "You'll see soon," he said when pressed for details, adding that he's "excited for all the new capabilities that we're launching soon to get Claude the ability to solve bigger, more ambitious problems for users." (Sounds a lot like Deep Research to me). The move represents Anthropic's continued push deeper into the professional market, with White describing Claude as "an indispensable virtual collaborator" that can "change how people perceive their limits professionally." He highlighted three key use cases driving high usage: automating tedious work, providing professional "superpowers" for existing roles, and helping users expand into new professional areas. For power users constantly frustrated by hitting Claude's limits mid-workflow, the new plans could be worth the premium -- especially for those who've made AI assistance central to their daily work.

OpenAI Rival Anthropic to Offer $200 Monthly Claude Chatbot Subscription

Anthropic plans to offer a much higher-priced subscription option for its Claude chatbot, making it the latest artificial intelligence company to test the limits of what it can charge consumers for more access to advanced AI models. The San Francisco-based company is set to announce on Wednesday a new Max plan, which will cost $100 or $200 per month, depending on usage. The company said the $100 option will give users the ability to send five times as many queries to Claude as its current $18-per-month Pro plan and the $200 option will offer 20 times as much usage. In general, paid Pro users can send at least 45 messages to Claude over a five-hour period, according to Anthropic.

Anthropic intensifies AI competition with $200 plan for Claude models

April 9 (Reuters) - Amazon-backed (AMZN.O), opens new tab artificial intelligence startup Anthropic on Wednesday introduced a $200 plan for its Claude chatbot customers who use its generative AI models extensively. WHY IT'S IMPORTANT The OpenAI competitor's move underscores generative AI companies' race to make their models more lucrative for users, offering the most sophisticated GenAI products. KEY QUOTE "In addition to more usage, Max plan users will also have priority access to our newest features and models," Anthropic said in a blog post. "The top request from our most active users has been expanded Claude access." BY THE NUMBERS Customers have the option to either pay $100 per month for five times the amount of usage as Anthropic's Pro plan, or pay $200 per month for 20 times the usage. Generative AI leader OpenAI's ChatGPT Pro costs $200 per month. Reporting by Arsheeya Bajwa in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab Suggested Topics:Artificial Intelligence

Anthropic steps up competition with OpenAI, rolls out $200 per month subscription

Dario Amodei, Anthropic CEO, speaking on CNBC's Squawk Box outside the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 21st, 2025. Anthropic, the artificial intelligence startup backed by Amazon, on Wednesday introduced Claude Max, a new subscription tier for its chatbot that competes with OpenAI's ChatGPT. Customers can pay $100 per month for five times the amount of usage as the company's Pro plan, or $200 per month for 20 times the amount. OpenAI's ChatGPT Pro, which is comparable to Claude Max, costs a flat rate of $200 per month. Anthropic, founded by former OpenAI research executives, launched Claude in March 2023. Like ChatGPT and Google's Gemini, Claude has exploded in popularity as businesses rush to incorporate generative AI chatbots across sales, marketing and customer service functions. Claude Max is a step above Anthropic's free offering and the $20 per month usage tier and a step below the company's business and enterprise options. Subscribers will get "priority access to new models and capabilities, creating an exclusive pipeline to test and implement innovative Claude solutions," Anthropic said. That includes access to Claude's voice mode, which will be introduced soon, according to product lead Scott White. Anthropic has been receiving requests for a usage tier like Max for at least a year, White said in an interview. He said a lot of demand was coming from people using Claude for "pragmatic professional usage," such as coding, financial services, media and entertainment, and marketing. The latest subscription tier is designed for power users, giving them first access to the company's new technology. "I'm excited for the people who really think of Claude as something that's indispensable for them not being blocked anymore by these limits and getting to scale their usage of Claude to make sure that it's solving as many problems for them as possible," White said. Last month, Anthropic closed its latest funding round at a $61.5 billion valuation. In December, annualized revenue hit $1 billion, up about tenfold from a year earlier, a source told CNBC at the time. Customers include startups as well as larger businesses like Zoom, Snowflake, Pfizer and Novo Nordisk.

Anthropic launches its best version of Claude yet -- but it will cost you $200 a month

As AI companies look to find ways to support their incredibly expensive models, it appears Anthropic will follow in the footsteps of OpenAI. With the release of its new Max plan, Anthropic now has prices all the way up to $200 a month. This now means Claude comes in three versions: Free, Pro, and Max. While the free version will still be plenty for most, the Pro version adds in extended thinking for more complex tasks, an array of extra versions of Claude and the ability to organize conversations. The new Max model takes things a step further. This adds priority in high-traffic periods and access to new features before anyone else. But more importantly, it allows for far more usage of Claude. The more complex a task or request is, the more expensive it is for AI to perform. With these more expensive subscription plans, Claude is lowering the limits, letting you ask more questions, perform bigger tasks, and put the model to full use. Claude Max technically comes in two versions. There's the 5x usage (for $100 a month) and a 20x usage version ($200 a month). Neither of these new plans are exactly cheap, so is it worth pouring money into it? This will depend entirely on how much you use the AI model and what tasks you're putting it through. If your use of Claude amounts to the occasional search, fun questions, and the occasional more complicated request, the free version will be plenty. As Anthropic puts it, there are really just a few reasons to choose this plan: If these all match with your usage, and you find yourself buried in Anthropic constantly throughout the day, the upgrade could be worth your time. Otherwise, Claude still comes in two much more affordable options that make it the best alternative to ChatGPT you can use.

Anthropic just launched a $200 version of Claude AI -- here's what you get for the premium price

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Anthropic introduced a new high-end subscription tier for its Claude chatbot today, directly challenging OpenAI's premium offerings and marking the latest escalation in the race to monetize powerful AI models amid soaring development costs. The new "Max" plan offers professionals two pricing options: $100 per month for five times the usage of Anthropic's existing $20 Pro plan, or $200 per month for twenty times the usage. The move mirrors OpenAI's $200 monthly ChatGPT Pro subscription but adds a less expensive middle tier for those who need more than the basic plan but not the full premium experience. This tiered approach shows Anthropic understands how AI is changing professional work. Many users now see Claude as a constant collaborator, not just an occasional tool. The $100 tier serves professionals who use Claude regularly but don't need full enterprise access. The $200 tier is for those who rely on Claude throughout their workday. The launch comes as AI companies search for sustainable business models to offset the enormous costs of developing and running increasingly powerful large language models. The latest generation of AI systems, including Anthropic's recently released Claude 3.7 Sonnet, requires vast amounts of computing resources both for training and everyday operation. Power users and premium pricing: The economics behind Claude's $200 tier For the small but growing cohort of "power users" -- professionals who have integrated AI assistants deeply into their daily workflows -- hitting usage limits represents a significant productivity bottleneck. The Max plan targets these users, particularly those who expense AI tools individually rather than accessing them through company-wide enterprise deployments. The pricing strategy reveals a fundamental shift in how AI companies view their customer base. What began as experimental technology is rapidly stratifying into distinct market segments with dramatically different usage patterns and willingness to pay. Anthropic's tiered structure acknowledges this reality: casual users can access basic capabilities for free, professionals with moderate needs pay $20 monthly, power users requiring substantial resources invest $100-$200 monthly, and enterprises negotiate custom packages. This segmentation creates a critical "missing middle" solution. Until now, there's been a vast chasm between individual subscriptions and enterprise contracts, leaving small teams and departments without right-sized options. The $100 tier particularly fills this gap, enabling team leads to expense meaningful AI resources without navigating complex procurement processes. The $200 price point represents a significant bet on AI's growing indispensability. Few professionals would have considered such an expense justifiable a year ago, but as these systems become embedded in daily workflows, the calculus changes dramatically. For a marketer, developer, or analyst billing clients at $150+ hourly, Claude's ability to accelerate projects by even 10% represents an obvious return on investment. Early access privileges: How Anthropic's feature pipeline entices premium subscribers Beyond higher usage limits, Max subscribers will receive priority access to upcoming features before they roll out to other users. This includes Claude's voice mode, expected to launch in the coming months, according to the company. This approach reveals Anthropic's sophisticated product development strategy. Rather than simply charging more for existing capabilities, the company is creating a premium experience that combines higher capacity with innovation privileges. This mirrors strategies used by companies like Tesla, which offers premium customers early access to new autopilot features, creating tangible status value beyond raw specifications. The voice mode tease is particularly significant. Voice interaction represents the next frontier in AI assistance, potentially transforming how professionals engage with Claude throughout their workday. The ability to verbally brief Claude on contexts, request analyses while multitasking, or receive spoken summaries while commuting could dramatically expand the assistant's utility in professional settings. For Anthropic, this exclusive access model serves multiple purposes: it creates powerful incentives for upgrades, establishes a controlled testing environment for new features, and generates valuable feedback from its most engaged users. The company essentially creates a revenue-generating beta program where customers pay for the privilege of shaping product development -- a remarkably efficient approach to innovation. Perfect timing: Claude 3.7 Sonnet's launch creates ideal runway for premium pricing The Max plan's launch follows just weeks after Anthropic released Claude 3.7 Sonnet, which the company describes as its "most intelligent model to date" and its first "reasoning model" -- designed to use more computing power for more reliable answers to complex questions. This sequencing reveals Anthropic's savvy product marketing strategy. By first demonstrating Claude 3.7 Sonnet's superior capabilities -- particularly in reasoning, coding, and complex information processing -- the company created market desire before introducing the premium pricing that makes these advanced features economically sustainable. The reasoning model approach represents a significant technological advancement worth examining. Unlike traditional language models that balance performance across diverse tasks, reasoning models allocate additional computational resources to problems requiring structured thinking and logical analysis. This creates a qualitatively different experience for users tackling complex challenges -- an experience Anthropic now argues justifies premium pricing. Dario Amodei, Anthropic's CEO, alluded to the company's growing revenue during a CNBC interview in January, though exact figures remain private. Industry sources estimate Anthropic's annualized revenue hit approximately $1 billion in December 2024, representing nearly tenfold growth year-over-year. The company closed its latest funding round last month at a $61.5 billion valuation. For comparison, OpenAI reportedly told investors its annualized revenue grew by $300 million within just two months of launching ChatGPT Pro, according to documents viewed by TechCrunch. These figures suggest the market for premium AI services is expanding rapidly, with customers demonstrating clear willingness to pay for higher quality and greater capacity. Working with AI all day: How professionals are reimagining their workflows around Claude Anthropic has identified three primary use cases driving high usage: automating repetitive tasks, enhancing capabilities within existing roles, and enabling professionals to expand into new areas. These patterns reflect a fundamental transformation in knowledge work that remains underappreciated by casual observers. We're witnessing the emergence of "AI-augmented professionals" -- workers who have fundamentally reinvented their processes around continuous collaboration with AI systems. For these individuals, Claude isn't an occasional assistant but an always-present thought partner, draft generator, and analytical engine working alongside them throughout their day. In practical terms, these translate to scenarios like a marketer using Claude to generate and refine multiple campaign variations, a developer maintaining continuous dialogue while debugging complex code, or a researcher processing substantial documents to extract patterns and insights. The economics of these use cases justify premium pricing in ways that weren't obvious even six months ago. The productivity gained from uninterrupted AI collaboration can be substantial -- often transforming what would be multi-day projects into hours-long sessions. For professionals whose time is valued at hundreds of dollars hourly, removing artificial constraints on this collaboration represents a compelling business case. While OpenAI's ChatGPT Pro offers unlimited usage, Anthropic has opted for defined, though substantially higher, usage limits. This approach reflects both technical realities and business strategy. Truly unlimited AI usage presents genuine scaling challenges, while tiered limits create natural upgrade paths as users' needs evolve. The company's refusal to rule out even higher-priced tiers suggests they recognize some segment of the market may require -- and willingly pay for -- even greater capacity. The maturing AI market: What Claude's new tiers signal for the future of AI business models The introduction of premium tiers by leading AI companies signals a maturing market where different user segments receive tailored offerings at corresponding price points. The $20-per-month casual professional user, the $100-$200 power user, and the enterprise client with custom needs represent distinct market segments with different expectations and willingness to pay. This evolution perfectly parallels historical patterns in enterprise software development. Adobe's transition from one-time purchases to Creative Cloud subscriptions, Microsoft's evolution from boxed Office to 365 tiers, and Salesforce's increasingly complex pricing matrix all followed similar trajectories as they became essential to their respective industries. AI appears to be compressing this evolution into months rather than years -- a testament to how quickly these tools have become business-critical. The fascinating question is whether AI will ultimately follow traditional SaaS pricing patterns or develop entirely new economic models. The compute-intensive nature of generative AI creates fundamentally different cost structures than traditional software. While the marginal cost of serving an additional user in traditional SaaS approaches zero, each additional AI interaction represents meaningful computational expense. This reality may eventually push the industry toward more consumption-based pricing models resembling cloud computing rather than flat subscription tiers. For businesses evaluating AI investments, the emergence of these tiers provides welcome flexibility. Small teams can now access significantly more AI resources without committing to organization-wide contracts, while individuals with specialized needs can justify premium subscriptions through tangible productivity gains. This growing range of options signals AI's transition from experimental technology to essential business infrastructure -- a transition that brings both higher prices and higher expectations for measurable return on investment. For now, the race between Anthropic, OpenAI, and other AI providers continues to intensify as they compete for both consumer attention and enterprise dollars. With development costs still enormous and the path to sustainable profitability unclear, premium subscriptions represent a crucial revenue stream as these companies work to transform promising technology into viable businesses.

Anthropic's New Claude Max Starts at $100/Month, Offers 5x-20x Higher Limits

Anthropic, the company behind the Claude family of AI models, has introduced new monthly Max plans starting at $100 per month and going up to $200. The $100 plan offers five times the usage of the existing $20 Monthly Pro plan, while the $200 plan provides 20 times the usage. In addition to increased usage limits, subscribers to the Max plan will receive priority access to the latest features and models. The new plan will benefit users who often hit rate limits quickly on Claude, if they are willing to pay a higher price. For instance, Andrew Wilkinson, co-founder of Tiny, requested Anthropic on X earlier this year, "Let me pay you more [so that we do] not hit these insane limits on Claude. I literally hit limits after like 10-20 [minutes] on most of my projects. I would pay thousands per month for totally unlimited access." Anthropic is likely following the footsteps of OpenAI, which also announced a $200 monthly ChatGPT Pro Plan last year. The ChatGPT Pro Plan includes all the features of the $20 per month Plus plan, as well as unlimited access to all reasoning models and GPT-4o. It also offers extensive access to in-depth research. Furthermore, Pro users receive early access to research previews like GPT-4.5 and Operator, improved performance through the o1 pro mode, and extended access to Sora for advanced video generation. Recently, Anthropic launched Claude for Education, a specialised version of its AI tool Claude designed to support higher education institutions. Key features include Learning Mode, which encourages critical thinking through Socratic questioning, and campus-wide access at several notable institutions. Last month, the company released the Claude 3.7 Sonnet, a hybrid model with extended thinking capabilities. Artificial Analysis, a platform that independently analyses AI models, called it the best non-reasoning model for coding. Besides, Anthropic plans to release a new version of Claude 3.7 Sonnet with a 500k context window -- a significant jump from the current 200k capacity. TestingCatalog spotted evidence of the same in feature flags.

Anthropic Debuts $200-per-Month Subscription to Claude AI Model | PYMNTS.com

Anthropic has debuted a higher-priced subscription version of its Claude artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot. The startup's Max plan, announced Wednesday (April 9), is designed for users who work extensively with Claude and require expanded access for their most important tasks. This plan also gives users priority access to Anthropic's newest features and models. "The top request from our most active users has been expanded Claude access," the announcement said. "The new Max plan delivers exactly that. With up to 20x higher usage limits, you can maintain momentum on your most demanding projects with little disruption." According to Anthropic, the Max plan lets users choose from two levels: "Expanded Usage," a plan priced at $100 per month and designed for frequent users who work with Claude on a variety of tasks; and Maximum Flexibility, costing $200 per month, for daily users who collaborate often with Claude for most tasks. "More usage unlocks more possibilities to collaborate with Claude, whether for work or life," the company said. "At work, it means you can build Projects around any work task -- whether it be writing, software, or data analysis -- and really collaborate with Claude until your outcomes are just right." Anthropic rival artificial intelligence startup OpenAI debuted a $200-per-month "research grade" version of its ChatGPT tool in December. Last week, Anthropic rolled out Claude for Education, which lets universities come up with and implement AI-powered approaches to teaching, learning and administration. The company said recently that it was more interested in developing generalist foundation AI models for enterprise users than for building hardware or consumer entertainment offerings. Speaking at the HumanX conference in March, Anthropic Chief Product Officer Mike Krieger said the company was focused on balancing research breakthroughs and product development. "We want to help people get work done, whether it's code, whether it's knowledge work, etc.," he said. "And then you can then imagine different manifestations of that" in applications for the consumer, small business and up to large corporations and the C-suite. Also Wednesday, PYMNTS spoke with AI experts on Meta's newest Llama AI model, which features a context window of up to 10 million tokens -- or around 7.5 million words -- almost 10 times the amount of Google's Gemini 2.5. Ilia Badeev, head of data science at Trevolution Group, told PYMNTS that his team was still marveling at Gemini 2.5's 1 million context window when Llama 4 launched. "This is an enormous number. With 17 billion active parameters, we get a 'mini' level model (super-fast and super-cheap) but with an astonishingly large context. And as we know, context is king," Badeev said. "With enough context, Llama 4 Scout's performance on specific applied tasks could be significantly better than many state-of-the-art models."