Better Offline Monologue: What's Going On At Anthropic?
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Apr 1, 2026 Discussion of Anthropic's new rate limits and confusing subscription tiers. Coverage of a source-code leak tied to Claude Code and what surfaced in the data cache. Concerns about software written entirely by LLMs and the quality and safety risks from rapid, LLM-driven development.
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Subscription Tiers Mask True Usage Costs
- Anthropic's Claude subscriptions hide real costs behind flat tiers, with heavy internal subsidizing that lets users burn far more tokens than they pay for.
- Ed Zitron cites $20/$100/$200 tiers and examples of users burning thousands while rate limits try to curb costs.
Peak Hours Broke Many Paid Users
- Anthropic imposed new 'peak hours' rate limits that reduced usable time for Claude Code, claiming only 7% impacted but users report widespread disruption.
- Zitron recounts reports of users hitting 61–95% of limits after just a few prompts on $100–$200 plans.
Users Hit Weekly Limits In Minutes
- Multiple users reported exhausting their session or weekly limits within minutes or a handful of prompts on higher tiers.
- Zitron references specific complaints: 61% after four prompts, 95% in 20 minutes, and cancellations of $200 plans.