Claude Max vs a Token Plan
Claude Max is Anthropic's $100 plan for heavy Claude and Claude Code use. Here is what it includes, how its limits work, and when a Token Plan — dollars of usage with no 5-hour or weekly windows — fits better.
Competitor details were checked against their official pages on November 4, 2026. Prices and limits change; follow the links to confirm.
What Claude Max includes
Anthropic sells Claude in three individual tiers. As of November 4, 2026, its pricing page lists:
| Plan | Price | Usage, as Anthropic describes it |
|---|---|---|
| Pro | $20 a month ($17 a month billed annually) | More usage than Free, every 5 hours and every week; includes Claude Code |
| Max | $100 a month | 5× Pro usage every 5 hours and every week; Fable up to half your weekly limit; $100 a month in API credits |
| Ultra | $200 a month | 10× Pro usage every week; no 5-hour limit for verified accounts; $200 a month in API credits |
Anthropic's Claude Code help article adds the rules that matter for coding: Pro and Max have a five-hour session limit and a weekly limit; Max and Ultra also have a separate weekly limit for Fable; the limits are shared across Claude and Claude Code; and the monthly API credits that come with Max and Ultra can't be used in Claude Code or the Claude apps.
What the limits don't tell you
The multipliers are relative to Pro, and Anthropic doesn't publish Pro's limit in tokens, messages, or dollars. Its pricing page says how fast you reach a limit "depends on the model you use, how long your chats are, and how large your files are". So you can't work out in advance how much Opus a week of Max buys — you find out when the limit arrives, and then you wait for the window to reset.
How a Token Plan is different
A Token Plan is a monthly amount of model usage in dollars, spent at each model's published list price:
| Plan | You pay / month | Usage at list price | ≈ tokens on Claude Opus 5.5 | ≈ tokens on Claude Sonnet 5.5 | ≈ tokens on GLM-5.3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Solo | $20 | $60 | 48M | 96M | 210M |
| Pro | $100 | $300 | 240M | 480M | 1B |
| Max | $200 | $600 | 480M | 960M | 2.1B |
Token estimates assume coding-agent traffic: 85% cached input, 12% fresh input, 3% output.
- No windows. There is no 5-hour session limit and no weekly cap. The whole month's credit is there from day one.
- A number you can read. Every request shows what it cost, and the dashboard shows what is left.
- Every frontier model in one pool. Claude Opus, Sonnet and Haiku, GPT, Gemini, GLM, Kimi and DeepSeek all draw from the same credit — Claude Fable 5.1 and Claude Fable 5 are the exception and stay on pay-as-you-go.
- Any tool. A plan key is an ordinary API key: Claude Code, Codex, opencode, Cline and the rest all take it.
The Claude models a plan covers, at list price:
| Model | Input / 1M | Cached / 1M | Output / 1M | Context | Token Plans |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Opus 5.5 | $4 | $0.2 | $20 | 1M | Included |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | $2 | $0.1 | $10 | 1M | Included |
| Claude Haiku 5.5 | $0.1 | $0.01 | $0.5 | 1M | Included |
Where Claude Max is the better deal
- You only use Claude, every day, and you use every window. Anthropic doesn't publish what a Max week is worth, so nobody can say how it compares with $300 of list-price usage. If you consistently use your whole allowance on Claude alone, Max may give you more.
- You want Fable. Max and Ultra include Fable within its own weekly limit. On our side, Fable is pay-as-you-go only.
- You want the Claude apps. Max covers Claude on the web, desktop and mobile. A Token Plan is API usage only.
Where a Token Plan is the better deal
- You hit the weekly limit mid-week. A plan has no weekly ceiling: the month's credit is spent when you spend it.
- You switch models. Run Opus for the hard parts and GLM, Kimi or DeepSeek for the bulk on the same plan, at each model's own price.
- You want to know your number. $100 buys $300 of usage at list price. That is the whole calculation.
Switch Claude Code to a plan
Claude Code reads two variables. Point them at your plan key and it bills to the plan instead of your subscription:
export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL="https://api.inferray.com"
export ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN="inferray_..."
Unset them and Claude Code goes back to your Claude subscription. The Claude Code setup guide covers the settings file and the VS Code extension.
Prices on this page come from the model catalog and were current on November 12, 2026.