Consumer Karl Kahn filed a class action lawsuit against AI startup Anthropic on June 15th in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. The complaint alleges that Anthropic misled customers about the actual usage caps of its high-end subscription plans—Max 5x and Max 20x—claiming they offer far less than advertised.
Anthropic's individual paid subscription, Claude Pro, costs $17 to $20 per month. To meet higher computing demands, the company launched the $100/month Max 5x plan and the $200/month Max 20x plan last April, promoting them as offering five times and twenty times the usage limits of Pro, respectively. But the lawsuit points to a July 2025 email in which Anthropic revealed expected weekly usage amounts for specific models—amounts that allegedly do not match those promised multiples.
Plaintiff Karl Kahn upgraded to the $200/month Max 20x plan this April for intensive coding work. Within weeks, he started hitting weekly usage limits. In one five-hour continuous coding session alone, he burned through 15% of his weekly quota. That forced him to constantly pause work, conserve usage, or pay extra for more. The lawsuit accuses Anthropic of fraudulent marketing and seeks refunds for all affected subscribers, plus additional damages.