A proposed class action lawsuit accuses Anthropic of promising Claude Max subscribers far more AI usage than it actually delivers, with one customer alleging the $200-per-month Max 20x plan provides just six to eight times the usage of the $20 Pro tier, less than half the advertised 20x multiplier. The complaint, filed Sunday in the US District Court for the Northern District of California by Washington D.C.-based user Karl Kahn, targets Anthropic's two most expensive individual plans. The Max 5x ($100/month) is marketed as five times the Pro plan's usage per session, while the Max 20x ($200/month) promises 20 times.
Kahn alleges the Max 5x delivers "just three-and-a-half times the usage of Pro."
Kahn first used Claude for personal projects before switching to coding work, upgrading twice to the Max 20x plan by April 2026. He told the court he burned through nearly 20% of his weekly data allocation in a single five-hour coding sprint. The lawsuit argues that Anthropic's website "is a black box, without any meaningful description of how usage is calculated."
The company defines usage limits as a "conversation budget", how much a user can work with Claude during specific windows, but never discloses the actual prompt count each tier allows. The complaint also says Anthropic doesn't clearly define what counts as a single session.
Customers who hit rate limits on premium plans are prompted to buy additional credits. Anthropic wrote in a blog post that it reserves the right to "limit your usage in other ways, such as weekly and monthly caps or model and feature usage, at [its] discretion."
The case arrives as Anthropic prepares for its initial public offering, the company filed confidential IPO papers with the SEC on June 1, and as of May 2026 held an estimated $965 billion valuation. The complaint seeks class action status for anyone who purchased Max 5x or Max 20x plans since April 2025, with damages exceeding $5 million.
Kahn is represented by Vaca Daffan LLP. Founding partner Kati Daffan told Decrypt the case rests on established consumer protection law: "The law is very clear that companies have to be honest about their advertising and marketing.
If they're not. They can be held liable, need to change their ways, and refund money to people."
The filing cites widespread frustration among subscribers, including a popular Reddit thread where users described the premium plans as "extremely misleading." Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
