Anthropic Faces Legal Action from Users Over Controversial Max Subscription Policies
A group of users of Anthropic’s Claude are initiating legal action against the company, claiming deceptive advertising regarding its premium Max subscription plan. As disclosed in a report, a class-action lawsuit was filed on September 8, accusing Anthropic of not clearly communicating the limitations associated with its Max plan, which debuted in April 2025.
According to Anthropic, the Max subscription provides “5x or 20x more usage than the Pro plan,” based on whether users opt for the $100 or $200 monthly fee. The Claude Pro plan begins at $17 per month when billed annually, and the company asserts that this enhanced tier is intended for regular users engaged in various tasks with Claude.
The core issue of the lawsuit, which follows an earlier federal case brought by an individual user in June, is that Anthropic’s advertising for Max emphasizes possible usage increases in relation to the Pro plan within a daily session that resets every five hours. However, Max subscribers are still limited by weekly usage caps introduced later in August.
Discussions surrounding the clarity of the Claude Max offering have gained traction on platforms like Reddit, where numerous users have voiced their dissatisfaction with Anthropic’s marketing. One commenter noted, “From the interface, I genuinely thought I was getting 20x weekly usage, as that’s what I’m paying for, not just a multiplier based on session limits.” They mentioned they only realized the discrepancy through a post on Reddit.
A popular post in the Reddit thread indicates that users might reasonably expect four times more usage with the $200 20x Max plan compared to the 5x $100 option. However, accounting for the weekly cap reveals that the actual increase is only 1.7 times, despite the higher cost.
While Anthropic does list the Max plan limitations on a support page, last revised on August 7, 2026, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs argues that the information is unclear. Monica Vaca expressed that the terms require users to navigate multiple hyperlinks to fully understand the true meaning behind the 5x or 20x usage claims. “This creates confusion for consumers, as they are unaware of the actual details,” she stated.
As of the publication date, Anthropic had not provided a response to requests for comments.
