This week, while using Claude and Claude Cowork, I’ve noticed something different. The tool is enforcing usage limits. That is, it won’t work if I hit a limit. The interesting thing is that the usage limit is for a given period of time. For example, I was working on something at 11 a.m. and hit a session usage limit. Claude said that my limit would reset at 3:30 p.m. The same thing had happened the night before at 7 p.m., when it said my session limit would reset at 11 p.m. It feels a bit more like throttling than anything, but I could be wrong and have limited data to back that up.

Here’s where it gets even more interesting: I was talking with a friend who’s an entrepreneur. He started a new company and is using Claude Cowork to build an agent to analyze data from disparate sources automatically. It’s pretty complex. In the middle of building the agent, he hit a usage limit. He was frustrated, so he upgraded his plan on the spot. He had no further difficulties.

My takeaway is that if I make Claude and Cowork a part of my normal habits and workflows, I’ll likely have to upgrade to the most expensive plan. Otherwise, my ability to rely on them will plummet, and tasks could stretch over days instead of minutes or hours. At the moment I don’t mind, because I get far more value from the tool than the price I pay. But it shows me that while Claude and similar tools are great, if you rely on them heavily, you must have the proper plans and tokens. If you don’t, they’re like the employee who shows up to work and leaves early, whether or not their work is done.