Preflight Checklist
What's Wrong?
Since March 22 March, 2026, my session limits has been exhausting extremely fast (much faster than before that date), without any real change to my input / usage patterns.
What Should Happen?
Rate limits on the max 5x plan shouldnt be hit repeatedly under moderate usage
Error Messages/Logs
For the last **1 hour 58 minutes**, my local Claude Code session logs show:
- **Time window (local, Asia/Ho_Chi_Minh):** `2026-03-25 01:00:32` to `2026-03-25 02:58:32`
- **Time window (ET / EDT):** `2026-03-24 14:00:32` to `2026-03-24 15:58:32`
- **Sessions:** `4`
- **API calls:** `53`
- **Input tokens:** `85`
- **Output tokens:** `69,004`
- **Cache creation tokens:** `265,514`
- **Cache read tokens:** `5,511,490`
- **Total tokens:** `5,846,093`
- **Quota-pressure / rate-limit estimate:** `334,603`
Formula used from the Python script @hgreene624 :
`quota_pressure_estimate = input_tokens + output_tokens + cache_creation_input_tokens`
This excludes `cache_read_input_tokens`.
For the same **2h 43m** period, my **5x Max plan** usage indicator increased by **11%**.
Because this was during a **2x bonus usage window**, that is equivalent to roughly **22% of normal usage**.
This was an absurdly small workload for such a high usage limit increase.
Steps to Reproduce
use 1m context window opus in Claude Code CLI
Regular usage which previously would never get beyond 50% of 5 hour limit has now hit 5 hour limit multiple times in the last few days. Weekly limit % is also going up much faster.
This appears to be a widespread issue — multiple users across platforms
are reporting the same behavior around the same timeframe.
Claude Model
Opus
Is this a regression?
Yes, this worked in a previous version
Last Working Version
No response
Claude Code Version
2.1.81
Platform
Anthropic API
Operating System
macOS
Terminal/Shell
iTerm2
Additional Information
-
Regression in quality of model since Opus 1M context has also been reported and I have experienced this, and I think this may be contributing - repeated backpedalling, duplication of works, errors and retrying, low quality output meaning it has to go back and do it again (auto accept edits mode on) - input token usage is similar, output token usage is enormous.
-
subagents makes it even worse
-issue appeared immediately not gradually and does not seem to be isolated to v2.1.81, it seems to be model related.
Preflight Checklist
What's Wrong?
Since March 22 March, 2026, my session limits has been exhausting extremely fast (much faster than before that date), without any real change to my input / usage patterns.
What Should Happen?
Rate limits on the max 5x plan shouldnt be hit repeatedly under moderate usage
Error Messages/Logs
Steps to Reproduce
use 1m context window opus in Claude Code CLI
Regular usage which previously would never get beyond 50% of 5 hour limit has now hit 5 hour limit multiple times in the last few days. Weekly limit % is also going up much faster.
This appears to be a widespread issue — multiple users across platforms
are reporting the same behavior around the same timeframe.
Claude Model
Opus
Is this a regression?
Yes, this worked in a previous version
Last Working Version
No response
Claude Code Version
2.1.81
Platform
Anthropic API
Operating System
macOS
Terminal/Shell
iTerm2
Additional Information
Regression in quality of model since Opus 1M context has also been reported and I have experienced this, and I think this may be contributing - repeated backpedalling, duplication of works, errors and retrying, low quality output meaning it has to go back and do it again (auto accept edits mode on) - input token usage is similar, output token usage is enormous.
subagents makes it even worse
-issue appeared immediately not gradually and does not seem to be isolated to v2.1.81, it seems to be model related.