Judge rules Claude Max ads promising '5x or 20x more usage' could have misled subscribers, letting their lawsuit go forward

A federal judge has ruled that two Claude subscribers can move forward with a lawsuit claiming Anthropic misled people who bought its Claude Max plans, according to a Nov. 6 court order.  U.S. Magistrate Judge Alex G. Tse of the Northern District of California wrote that the company's "5x or 20x more usage than Pro" advertising is "plausibly misleading."

Karl Kahn and Solomon Smith filed the suit on behalf of a proposed class of Claude Max subscribers.  No class has been certified.

How Claude's plans work

Claude is Anthropic's AI chatbot.  According to the order, the company sold four plans to individuals: free, Pro at $17 to $20 a month, Max 5x at $100 a month and Max 20x at $200 a month.  The paid plans include Claude Code, a tool that can read a programmer's files, change code and run tests on its own.

Claude limits how much each customer can use it in two ways: a cap for each five-hour stretch, called a session, and a weekly cap.  The plaintiffs say Max buyers did get 5 or 20 times Pro's limit per session, but their weekly caps were not 5 or 20 times higher.  Using one Claude model, they calculated that Max 5x users got about 3.5 times Pro's weekly usage and Max 20x users about 6 times, the order says.  That means a heavy Max user could run out before the week ends.

What the judge decided

Because customers pay monthly, Tse wrote, a reasonable buyer could read "5x more usage" as a monthly promise.  Anthropic argued that its website explained the multiples applied per session.  The judge said that explanation sat two links away from the sales pages, outside the sign-up path, and compared it to fine print on the back of a shampoo bottle.  An asterisk reading "Usage limits apply" did not fix the problem, he wrote, because it said nothing about sessions.

Three claims survive: Smith's claim under California's Consumers Legal Remedies Act, a state law against deceptive sales; negligent misrepresentation; and breach of contract.  Tse dismissed Kahn's claim under that law, saying Kahn had not shown he used Claude for personal rather than business work.  He also dismissed claims under California's Unfair Competition and False Advertising laws on technical grounds, and a claim that Anthropic acted unfairly by changing limits mid-subscription.  Anthropic's terms let it change capacity limits at any time, the judge wrote, so those changes were within its rights.

The ruling does not decide who is right.  At this early stage a judge treats the complaint's facts as true.  The plaintiffs may file an amended complaint by Dec. 2.  If they do not, Anthropic must respond by Dec. 16.

What subscribers see now

Claude's pricing page, opened Sunday, now describes Max at $100 a month as "5x Pro usage every 5 hours and every week."  It lists a separate $200 Ultra plan with "10x Pro usage every week" and no five-hour limit for verified accounts.  The order does not address this wording.

Source:  Kahn v. Anthropic PBC, No. 3:26-cv-05763, order on motion to dismiss (Nov. 6, 2026); CourtListener docket; Claude pricing page