claude-code - 💡(How to fix) Fix Max plan usage budget needs transparency: no way to know what you're paying for [2 comments, 3 participants]

Problem

The Max plan ($200/mo tier) describes usage limits in relative terms ("20x more than Pro") but never discloses the actual token budget. There is no dashboard, meter, or documentation that tells a subscriber:

1. What their total budget is (in tokens or dollars) per billing period
2. How much they have consumed
3. What rate different models consume the budget at
4. When or whether the budget has been changed

The only signal is a percentage bar that counts up until you hit the limit. That is like a gas gauge with no gallons printed on the pump.

Why this matters

A few weeks ago, I could work intensively with Opus 4.6 through Claude Code for an entire billing cycle and never approach the limit. Now, 3 days into a cycle, I have used 65% of my budget with no change in workflow intensity. Something changed, but I have no way to determine what:

• Was the token budget reduced?
• Did a model update increase per-token cost against the same dollar budget?
• Did something change in how Claude Code consumes tokens (longer system prompts, more tool calls)?

Billing cycle reset without notice

Both my account and my wife's account (separate $200/mo Max subscriptions) had their usage reset early last Friday at 2:00 AM. The expected reset was Sunday at 1:00 PM. That is roughly 35 hours of billing cycle lost. At the time of the early reset, I had approximately 30% of my budget remaining. Those tokens simply disappeared. No notice, no explanation, no credit.

If Anthropic changed billing cycle dates, that needs to be communicated before it happens, not discovered after the fact.

Request

1. Publish the actual budget per plan tier, per billing period, in concrete units (tokens or dollar equivalent).
2. Provide a usage dashboard showing consumption over time, broken down by model and session.
3. Announce changes to the budget, per-model rates, or billing cycle timing before they take effect.
4. Show per-session cost more prominently in Claude Code (the /cost command exists but is opt-in and session-scoped).
5. Do not silently shorten billing cycles. If the reset schedule changes, notify subscribers and prorate accordingly.