Claude Max vs OpenLimits
Claude Max is Anthropic’s premium web subscription tier, and its central constraint is how much you are allowed to use it. OpenLimits is a managed service at €120 per month with no per-token billing and no usage windows — plus Codex and GPT models Claude Max does not include. The comparison below focuses on developer use cases.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Claude Max ($100/mo) | Claude Max ($200/mo) | OpenLimits (€120/mo) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Usage model | Capped by 5-hour windows | Capped by 5-hour windows | Unmetered — no token billing |
| Cost per token | N/A (web only) | N/A (web only) | €0 |
| Daily ceiling | Hit in hours under heavy use | Hit under heavy use | $2,000/day API-equivalent |
| Request admission | 5x Pro limits | 20x Pro limits | 30 starts/second |
| Account cooldowns | Still possible | Less frequent | Managed by pool |
| API access | No | No | Full REST API |
| Claude Code CLI | Web only | Web only | Full support |
| Cursor integration | No | No | Yes |
| Codex/GPT models | No | No | Included |
| Extended thinking | Higher limit | Highest limit | Supported |
| Token analytics | No | No | Full dashboard |
| Effort levels | No | No | Yes (low/med/high) |
| Automatic failover | N/A | N/A | Yes |
| All models | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Interface | Web chat | Web chat | Any API client |
The second difference: web chat vs API
Claude Max gives you higher limits on Anthropic's web interface. That's it. You still can't use Claude Max with:
- Claude Code CLI (terminal-based coding agent)
- Cursor, Windsurf, or other IDE integrations
- Custom scripts or applications using the API
- Conductor or other multi-agent tools
- OpenCode, OpenClaw, or similar open-source tools
OpenLimits is a standard REST API that the tools accept. Set the variable once. It also includes Codex and GPT models that Claude Max does not have.
A usage cap versus no usage cap
Claude Max at $100/mo gives you 5x Pro limits. The $200/mo tier gives 20x. But “5x more” of a low limit is still a limit. Developers using Claude Code heavily report hitting Max limits within a few hours of intensive work.
OpenLimits does not apply usage windows at all. You pay €120 a month and send what you need to send: there is no per-token charge, no credit balance, and no cooldown between sessions. The only ceiling is a fair-use limit of $2,000 per day in API-equivalent usage — roughly $60,000 a month at provider list prices, which is set to prevent resale rather than to ration normal work. Ultimate removes it entirely.
Two honest caveats: a global guard admits 30 request starts per second, which no interactive agent approaches, and a provider-wide outage can still interrupt work.
When Claude Max fits
- You exclusively use the Claude web interface
- You don't need API access or CLI tool integration
- The $200/mo tier's 20x limits are genuinely enough for your usage
- You prefer Anthropic's first-party interface and don't use code editors with AI
When OpenLimits fits
- You use Claude Code, Cursor, or any API-based tool
- You want pooled API routing instead of a single-user subscription window
- You want token analytics and usage tracking
- You want a single API key that works everywhere
- You want GPT-6 Sol, Astra, and Luna alongside Claude Opus, Sonnet, and Haiku
- The €120/mo price point is better than $300+ for Max + Codex Pro combined
Switching from Claude Max
The migration changes the endpoint and credentials used by your client:
- Sign up at openlimits.app and get your API key
- Set
ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=https://openlimits.appin your shell profile - Set
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your-key - Cancel your Claude Max subscription
Every Claude tool will automatically use OpenLimits. See our Claude Code setup guide or Cursor setup guide for detailed instructions.