Ultra verified accounts and the temporary 5-hour limit

A verified Ultra account has no five-hour limit, only weekly limits. Until Anthropic verifies an Ultra account, "a temporary limit applies", and Anthropic removes it automatically once the account is verified. To check, open Settings > Usage: "If you don't see a Current session bar, your account is verified." This is from Anthropic's Ultra plan article, as of November 2026.

How verification works

Verification is automatic. To help prevent fraud and abuse, Anthropic says it verifies Ultra accounts "using factors like your account and payment history". About the temporary limit it adds: "We remove it automatically once your account is verified, so there's nothing you need to do." Anthropic does not publish how long verification takes or exactly which factors count.

One point catches people out. "Verifying your phone number at checkout is a separate step and doesn't remove this limit." So if you gave Anthropic your phone number when you subscribed and still see a session bar, that is expected. The phone step and the Ultra verification are two different things.

What changes when you are verified

Pro, Max and Team plans have a five-hour limit: a session limit that resets every five hours, alongside weekly limits. "Verified Ultra accounts don't have a five-hour limit." That leaves the weekly limits as the only plan limits, and Ultra is described as "10x Pro usage every week" (see Anthropic pricing).

For Claude Code this means no session wall in the middle of a long run. It does not mean no limit. Usage still counts against the weekly allowance, and Anthropic's Claude Code error reference warns that "A single burst of heavy activity, such as a large workflow fanout, can exhaust the weekly allowance". Weekly limits reset at a fixed time assigned to your account, shown in Settings > Usage. Ultra also has a separate weekly limit for Fable: you can spend up to 50% of your weekly limits on Fable models, and that use counts toward the all-models limit too.

How to check whether you are verified

1. Go to Settings > Usage on claude.ai (on the web, in Claude Desktop or in the mobile apps).
2. Look for a "Current session" bar.
3. If it is there, your account is not verified yet and the temporary limit applies. If it is not there, you are verified.

That is Anthropic's own test, quoted from the Ultra plan article. In Claude Code, /usage shows plan usage bars too, but the documented test for verification is the Settings > Usage page, so use that one.

What the temporary limit looks like

Anthropic does not describe the temporary limit in detail: not its size, and not whether it differs from the five-hour limit on Max. Two things suggest it works like a session limit. The sign of it is the "Current session" bar, which is how the five-hour limit appears on other plans. And Anthropic's wrap-up article treats an Ultra plan with a temporary limit the same as Max, with the allowance available each time a five-hour limit is reached.

So expect Claude Code to behave as it does at any session limit: a message such as "You've hit your session limit · resets 3:45pm", and no further requests until the reset time shown.

The wrap-up allowance works like this. If a five-hour limit is reached while Claude Code is partway through a response, it may keep working briefly to finish the step in progress and shows "Usage limit reached · wrapping up". The allowance is small and capped, counts toward the weekly limit, needs Claude Code 2.1.277 or later and is rolling out gradually. A verified account has no five-hour limit, so there is nothing to wrap up from.

Two other things apply while you wait:

• You can turn on usage credits, which let you keep going past a limit at standard API rates. They do not change when your limits reset.
• Claude Code can continue a stopped task on its own after the reset, if you keep the session open. It does not start that wait on its own for a reset more than 24 hours away, which a weekly limit can be. See Claude Code auto-continue after a limit.

Do not expect it to happen instantly

Anthropic does not say how long automatic verification takes. If you upgraded for the specific benefit of no five-hour limit, check Settings > Usage before relying on it for an overnight job. Otherwise a run you expected to go on until the weekly limit may stop at the temporary limit instead.

If you were on Max 20x before October 30, 2026, your account moved to Ultra automatically. Anthropic's article does not say whether such accounts start verified, so use the same Settings > Usage test. The background is in what happened to Max 20x.

How this compares with Max

Max keeps the five-hour limit for everyone, so it is the plan where session resets matter all the time. If you are deciding between the two, see Max vs Ultra.

Seeing it on your Mac

Headroom is a free menu bar app that shows each Claude Code account's limits. An Ultra account that has no five-hour limit shows only its weekly limits, and it is left out of the menu bar average, which only averages accounts that have a session limit. If an Ultra account still shows a Session meter, that matches the temporary limit described above. Headroom is independent, by Everyday Mac Tools, and not made or endorsed by Anthropic. It reads the sign-in Claude Code already saved and never sends a prompt. Get it from the Headroom home page.