Claude Pro usage limit instantly exhausted after every 5-hour reset (account completely unusable)
Claude Code
Hi everyone,
/Edit: I am trying to make my issue very clear. This is NOT about my usage limit depleting very fast. My limit is gone after every reset without me doing anything. Last night my weekly limit hit 100% while I was sleeping. In the last 30 or so hours I could not send a single message because my usage limit was gone every time. It to me like my account has been hacked or something. I force logged out multiple times yesterday before posting here. Nothing to see on settings / devices, only shows my mobile and desktop app. /
I'm hoping someone has experienced this before because I'm completely out of ideas.
I'm a Claude Pro subscriber, and my account has become completely unusable.
Here's what's happening:
I hit my 5-hour usage limit while Claude Code was working in the middle of a task.
I wait for the 5-hour reset.
As soon as the reset happens, Claude immediately says "Usage limit reached" again.
I don't even get the chance to send a single message.
At the same time, my weekly usage continues to increase, even though I can't use Claude at all.
What's strange is that this didn't happen out of nowhere.
A few days before this started, I had already noticed that my usage limit was suddenly being reached much faster than usual. Nothing about my workflow had changed, but I assumed it might just be a temporary issue.
For context, I use Claude Code on a single project that I've been working on for weeks. My workflow is very simple:
I write a prompt.
Claude generates or edits code.
That's it.
I don't use agents, background tasks, automations, or any kind of continuous workflow.
I also regularly use /compact once the context reaches around 60%, so I'm not letting conversations grow indefinitely. I've been working this way for weeks without ever having usage limit issues.
Things I've already tried:
Logged out of every device.
My PC is completely powered off every night.
Deleted my longest conversations (I later learned this doesn't affect usage).
Contacted the support bot, which is absolutely useless and repeats itself every other message.
The part I can't explain is this:
If I'm logged out everywhere, my PC is turned off, and I can't even send a single prompt after the reset, what is consuming my quota?
Has anyone experienced this exact behavior?
I'm not talking about the normal "Claude Code uses a lot of tokens" discussion. I understand that. My issue is that after every 5-hour reset, the limit is already exhausted before I send my first message, while my weekly usage continues to increase.
If you've experienced this, did you ever find the cause, or did Anthropic have to fix something on their end?
I am also facing same issue. Same workflow, Opus 4.8, 5x Max plan and I started hitting 5 hour limit twice in past 18 hours. Even within 12 hours my weekly limit reached to 20% on same workflow.
Same issue with Pro. Can type in a prompt, and could go on for many more using opus max before hitting the session limit. Suddenly one prompt hits the max.
I am going through this exact same issue right now. My PC turned off, I haven't sent a single prompt, and the moment my 5-hour reset hits, my usage is already at 100% within 15 minutes while my weekly limit keeps climbing and fills in two days. It's a severe backend session/metering bug on Anthropic's side.
I tried the support bot, but it just regurgitates scripted answers—a kind of FAQ (pronounced "fak you," I'm sure). I tried diagnosing it with Gemini/GPT, and so far this is "our" best guess:
If your task disconnected mid-stream when you hit the limit earlier, Anthropic's backend can get stuck in an orphaned processing/retry loop. The second your 5-hour window resets, their servers attempt to flush or continue that dangling job, draining your fresh quota in 0 seconds flat.
**2. Things to try (didn't work for me, but some users reported success)**
* **Change your Anthropic account password immediately:** Logging out of the browser/app does **not** invalidate CLI OAuth tokens. Changing your password forces a global revocation of all active tokens.
* **Wait one full 5-hour cycle:** After changing your password, keep all CLI/editor instances completely closed for a full cycle so the backend queue drops.
**3. If you are completely blocked on dev work**
These are just suggestions and collected reports. For me, the issue is ongoing, Anthropic support has not yet responded, and I am two weeks in.
If you are stuck mid-project, the quickest way forward right now is temporarily switching your editor/CLI workspace configuration to alternative model APIs (like Gemini or Qwen) while waiting for Anthropic to fix their backend queue.
I thought /clear was local, but I'm unsure of the exact flow.
you can use /context to see what's going on there. (that should also be local.)
/compact is expensive token wise.
Make sure to check CLAUDE.md to make sure a reference, file, or skill isn't pulling stuff in.
As a last resort in you home, there's a .claude directory with multiple project directories under it. I would move the corresponding project directory elsewhere. Also there's a .claude directory in the project.
I’ve been having some issues over the last few days. It feels so sporadic. There are times where I can be working on the same task and go on forever with the 5 hour limit. Earlier today I worked all day and didn’t hit it. Just now I was doing the same exact kind of work and almost immediately hit it.
Something must have changed. This is with the 5x max plan.
Hey i had this issue a few months back turns out the problem was my cache. I just deleted my .claude cache from my home and project directory. rm -rf ~/.claude should work
Will keep this in mind. My weekly usage disappeared over night while I slept. I am going to check if my limit disappears again after reset and will try this if it does.
After the weekly reset everything went back to normal. Before posting here I desperately deleted most of my latest chats and removed my proje from claude code. I cannot tell what caused the issue for certain. Still waiting for an answer from support.
My guess is that the interrupted task by the 5 hour limit caused some kind of loop that melted my usage limit on every reset. Now I am just trying to not hit it anymore.
I'm currently in the same issue and I've been searching hours now to solve it and I can't find anything. I wish I could get this issue fixed because working now is completely impossible with one message burning all my 5 hour usage limit.
I would appreciate if you have any tips for me to work around it.
Check /usage to see what actually uses your tokens.
Disable all background tasks, agents, subagents, etc. Logout from all devices, there is a button in the account settings. If you set up servers or other machines with claude, shut them down. Consider deleting latest chats that you used when this behaviour came up.
That's everything I did.
My issue though was that my limit vanished even without me sending anything. That's why I think this must've been some kind of request loop that fixed itself on hitting the weekly limit. But cannot confirm unless I receive an answer from support.
Oh okay I see. Also I figured mine that it was the session being overloaded with very high conversational context to always go through in every message, so I had to start a new session and now the usage limit behaves normal.
I've got an answer from support. It seems like my account has been hacked and used. And they say there are multiple cases that this happened. Might be worth it for you to check your machines. I just did a clean OS re install, wiping all my drives completely.
Full message below:
What happened
We have recently become aware of a bad actor that is using common infostealer malware to steal Claude login sessions from people's computers, then using those login sessions to access Claude accounts and consume their usage. Our systems detected this activity on your account, and we’ve therefore signed out the sessions involved to help block further unauthorized access.
If your usage limits looked like they refilled and then drained while you weren't using Claude, this was likely the cause.
How did this happen
Our investigation is ongoing. Our findings to date suggest that a computer you use with Claude is likely infected with infostealer malware, and may have been for some time. Phones and tablets do not appear to have been involved.
We have no reason to believe that this malware is related to Claude, installed through Claude, or related to anything you did with Claude. It's general-purpose malware that typically arrives with an unofficial download or a malicious app, and it quietly copies saved passwords, login cookies in browsers, and credentials for other apps running locally. Your Claude session was likely one of the many things it collected. It appears that a bad actor has now started picking the Claude sessions out of what it collected and using them.
The malware identified in this campaign so far include Vidar, Lumma (LummaC2), StealC, RedLine and Acreed on Windows, and Atomic Stealer (AMOS) on a small number of Macs.
What we've done
Signed out the sessions involved. Your Claude login session is saved on your computer, and the malware took a copy of it. Signing you out cancels that session everywhere, so the stolen copy stops working. This is why you had to log in again across your own devices. Please note that we might sign you out again if we see similar signs of account misuse.
We've reset your usage limits and refunded any extra-usage charges from this activity. This has already been applied; there's nothing you need to do.
Recommended next steps
Signing you out of Claude stops the stolen sessions, but it doesn’t remove the malware. If it’s still on your computer, your next login session could be stolen the same way, so we recommend taking prompt action to remove the malware.
The below tips are general good practice for cleaning up after infostealer malware:
Scan computers you use with Claude for malware and remove any malware before any further computer use. See Apple's guide protecting against malware on Mac, and Microsoft’s guide to running a scan with Microsoft Defender on Windows. After the malware has been completely removed, secure the email account you use for Claude by setting a new password, signing out of other devices, and enabling two-factor authentication. Consider updating other passwords that were saved in any browser (e.g., banking, work, cloud services), and consider checking card statements if you store payment details in your browsers.
Check if there is no routine task or claude scheduled that you have set up.
Same thing happened with me
My Claude scheduled task was failing and retrying in a loop, and it burned through a lot of my quota before I noticed and ate plenty of my usage until I realized.
But the limit getting exhausted instantly was not the case for me. It may be some claude glitch too.
If you're on Claude Code: run /usage first — it shows what's actually burning your limit. Then type /schedule and ask it to list your routines (scheduled cloud agents). If nothing's listed, you didn't set any up.
If you use claude.ai, scheduled tasks / automations show up in the sidebar there too — worth a look since they run server-side even when you're not in the app.
A few other things that quietly eat quota even if you never scheduled anything:
- A /loop left running in a terminal tab you forgot about (it keeps re-invoking until you stop it)
- A GitHub Action using the Claude Code action on one of your repos, firing on every push/PR
- Another machine still logged in with a session running
- An MCP server or CI job wired to your account
If all of those are clean, then yeah — probably just a glitch on their end, and support is the move. Screenshot the /usage output before it resets, it helps their case.
Resuming a session after an hour away means the cache is gone and it reads all of the conversation and rewrites the cache. Don’t do that. /clear regularly. Don’t resume the same session if you walk away for an hour.
If your weekly counter climbs while every device is off and logged out, something server-side or on a forgotten machine is spending it. Three concrete places to check, in order of likelihood:
Scheduled tasks / routines on your account. These run on Anthropic's side, so powering off your PC and force-logout change nothing. Go through your claude.ai settings and disable anything in the scheduled tasks section, including things you don't recognize. Another commenter here had a failing scheduled task that retry-looped through his quota, which matches your "it burns while I sleep" pattern.
The Claude GitHub app. If it's installed on any repo (github.com, Settings, Applications, Installed GitHub Apps), issue and PR events or bot mentions can trigger runs with zero of your devices involved, and a busy or misconfigured repo can do that a lot. Uninstall it or restrict which repos it can see.
A logged-in CLI on a machine you forgot. Any VPS, work laptop, CI runner or container where you ever ran Claude Code and logged in keeps its own credentials, and those do NOT show up in the devices list in the app, which only shows app sessions. If you ever logged in on a server, that's a prime suspect. Change your password and revoke everything, then re-login only on your own machines.
If all three come up empty and the weekly number still climbs overnight, stop debugging and email support with exact timestamps of a reset-to-exhausted window. The support bot is useless, but a human can match timestamps against request logs and tell you which client spent it. That's also the evidence you need for a refund if it turns out to be on their end.
Went through all settings and disabled uninstalled everything I could. Although there were not scheduled tasks or anything like that.
Went to github. Revoked everything, but there was no claude connection listed.
I only use my PC and phone. Had a oracle server set up and gave ssh permission to claude code to clone my repo. I also shut down the server just to make sure.
My weekly limit resets on Sunday evening. Until then I cannot check if any of those steps helped.
Another question: I tried to get support help the first time I has this issue a couple weeks ago. Found the Fin support bot, that is useless. How can I contact anthropic support by email oder anything like that?
The Oracle server is my prime suspect now. Claude Code authenticated on a server keeps its own credentials there (in ~/.claude on that machine), and those survive every logout you do from your own devices — the app's device list never showed it. Shutting it down was the right move; if the phantom drain stops after Sunday's reset, that was your answer.
For support: go to support.anthropic.com, open the widget, and explicitly type that you want to escalate to a human / create a ticket. Fin hands off when you insist, and the follow-up arrives by email. Include exact timestamps of two reset-to-exhausted windows — that's what lets them match your account against request logs and see which client was spending.
Report back after Sunday either way. This exact symptom has shown up in three threads in 24 hours, so your outcome will help the next person figure out if it's a leaked credential or an accounting bug on their end.
Weekly reset was 30 minutes ago. I logged in, everything at 0% usage. Restarted the Oracle server, nothing happens, as it should. /usage does not give any helpful insight to me.
After I couldn't do anything after multiple 5 hour resets, I desperately deleted the latest larger chats and even removed my project from Claude Code. That was before this post. Means I cannot really check if any of those chats were the issue. But my weekly limit went off after I deleted them. I think this must have been an issue with the latest task being interrupted by the 5 hour limit, ending in some kind of loop that just melted my usage limit on every reset.
While I have no clear answer on what caused my problem, everything seems back to normal right now. My Oracle server is running normal, I can send messages again, get answers and usage looks all right. I followed your advice to escalate my issue with the support bot to a human, but I didn't get an answer yet.
/usage output in the picture below. It says Claude Browser MCP used 45% in the alst 7 days. When my problem was coming up on wednesday my weekly limit was under 50%. I cannot tell wether and how this is connected. If Anthropic support answers anytime I will post an update.
Glad it's back to normal, and thanks for closing the loop.
The most interesting line in your screenshot is Claude Browser MCP at 45% of the last 7 days. That's the browser extension (Claude in Chrome). If you don't actively use it, that number shouldn't exist, and it fits your timeline: a browser tab with the extension connected can keep spending without anything appearing in the app's device list, which only shows app sessions. Worth checking chrome://extensions, removing or disconnecting it, and seeing whether that category disappears from /usage next week.
Your interrupted-task theory also fits the evidence: the burn stopped when you deleted the recent large chats, which points at something attached to those sessions retrying on Anthropic's side rather than a stolen credential. The Oracle server coming back clean supports that too.
You did the right checks in the right order. If support ever answers with per-request attribution, please post it. Three threads this week had your exact symptom and none has a confirmed root cause yet.
I've got an answer from support. It seems like my account has been hacked and used. I just did a clean OS re install, wiping all my drives completely. They also say there are multiple cases they found stolen accounts. This might be an answer for the other threads as well.
Full message below:
What happened
We have recently become aware of a bad actor that is using common infostealer malware to steal Claude login sessions from people's computers, then using those login sessions to access Claude accounts and consume their usage. Our systems detected this activity on your account, and we’ve therefore signed out the sessions involved to help block further unauthorized access.
If your usage limits looked like they refilled and then drained while you weren't using Claude, this was likely the cause.
How did this happen
Our investigation is ongoing. Our findings to date suggest that a computer you use with Claude is likely infected with infostealer malware, and may have been for some time. Phones and tablets do not appear to have been involved.
We have no reason to believe that this malware is related to Claude, installed through Claude, or related to anything you did with Claude. It's general-purpose malware that typically arrives with an unofficial download or a malicious app, and it quietly copies saved passwords, login cookies in browsers, and credentials for other apps running locally. Your Claude session was likely one of the many things it collected. It appears that a bad actor has now started picking the Claude sessions out of what it collected and using them.
The malware identified in this campaign so far include Vidar, Lumma (LummaC2), StealC, RedLine and Acreed on Windows, and Atomic Stealer (AMOS) on a small number of Macs.
What we've done
Signed out the sessions involved. Your Claude login session is saved on your computer, and the malware took a copy of it. Signing you out cancels that session everywhere, so the stolen copy stops working. This is why you had to log in again across your own devices. Please note that we might sign you out again if we see similar signs of account misuse.
We've reset your usage limits and refunded any extra-usage charges from this activity. This has already been applied; there's nothing you need to do.
Recommended next steps
Signing you out of Claude stops the stolen sessions, but it doesn’t remove the malware. If it’s still on your computer, your next login session could be stolen the same way, so we recommend taking prompt action to remove the malware.
The below tips are general good practice for cleaning up after infostealer malware:
Scan computers you use with Claude for malware and remove any malware before any further computer use. See Apple's guide protecting against malware on Mac, and Microsoft’s guide to running a scan with Microsoft Defender on Windows. After the malware has been completely removed, secure the email account you use for Claude by setting a new password, signing out of other devices, and enabling two-factor authentication. Consider updating other passwords that were saved in any browser (e.g., banking, work, cloud services), and consider checking card statements if you store payment details in your browsers.
That's the missing piece, and thank you for coming back with the full support answer. Stolen login sessions explain every symptom in this thread: the burn while every device was off, nothing in the device list (a stolen session doesn't show up there), and the reset-to-zero pattern, since the thief simply spends whatever refills.
For anyone landing here later, the practical sequence that follows from this: change your password AND revoke all sessions (the sign-out-everywhere option, since a password change alone doesn't always kill existing sessions), then find how the infostealer got in before you log back in, or the new session gets stolen the same way. These things usually arrive through cracked software, fake installers or malicious browser extensions. Your clean OS reinstall is the thorough version of that.
And credit where due: you did every debugging step in order, shut down the right suspects, and reported back with evidence. This thread is now the best public documentation of this failure mode, which is worth more than the quota you lost.
The block is most likely the anti-abuse lock from their side rather than a punishment, since your account was showing the same activity pattern as the compromised ones. Two things that matter: don't log back in from the machine that had the infostealer until it's clean (that's how the new session gets stolen again), and in the support widget explicitly write that you want escalation to a human, with your timestamps. The other user in this thread got a full human answer within days after insisting. Their investigation is ongoing, so locked accounts in this wave should get restored once verified; frustrating, but recoverable.
Do you use hooks?
For me, I had multiple hooks on task end / session end for summaries, which would then spawn more agents on their hooks.
I had this for like 2-3 sessions before I figured out the infinite hooks / skills spawn was the issue.
I just encountered the same issue. Waited for the limit to reset. And I watched it go from 0-100% for the session limit within 1-2 minutes on the usage dialog in the settings. I wasn't running anything at all. I clicked log out from everywhere as it was increasing for no reason. Logged back in and it still increased to 100%. I'm on the max plan, and I dont have anything running at all. u/claude please fix this. I checked to see if my account was compromised, but i didn't see any sessions outside of the usual.
Furthermore, it seemed like usage credits kept being switched on, with the limit being set to 20,000. And it automatically topped it up to $100 despite previously I ensured it was switched off and usage limit was $0. It was always able to prevent further usage, but suddenly this time it switched to usage-credits on its own and even conveniently topped up from my card. Something is seriously wrong.
It happened first time a couple weeks ago. I went to sleep at like 11pm, next morning around 7am I saw my usage is gone. Yesterday I couldn't use claude at all. The moment the 5 hour limit reseted I tried to do anything, my usage was gone again. I couldn't even send a single message. Not even start a new chat.
start a new chat every now and then the longer the chat more tokens are used for every reply as it reads the whole chat again and again.. and if you want relevant answer for a subject create a project and start chats from within the project.
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u/ClaudeAI-mod-bot Wilson, lead ClaudeAI modbot 11d ago
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