Today I upgraded to the Claude Code Max plan, and I wanted to share my reasoning behind this decision.

Life on the Starter Plan

The basic Starter plan operates on 5-hour windows that reset after each period. Since starting with Claude Code on June 5th, I’ve hit this limit fewer than 5 times. Each time, I only had to wait less than an hour for the reset, so the limitation wasn’t particularly painful.

However, staying within these limits required careful planning and deliberate constraints:

My Starter Plan Strategy

  1. Strategic Timing: I’d start early in the day to ensure I could have two sessions during work hours. If I hit the limit in the first session, I knew I’d have another window later.

  2. Model Selection: I exclusively used Sonnet, never trying Opus to conserve usage.

  3. Conservative Usage:

    • Used only one terminal at a time
    • Carefully reviewed all suggested changes before implementing
    • Only requested multiple parallel agents when nearing the 5-hour window or when I knew I wouldn’t need Claude Code soon after
    • Kept automatic edits disabled most of the time

The Silver Lining

This measured pace actually helped me learn Claude Code more thoroughly. By watching and understanding each interaction, I developed a better sense of how to integrate it effectively into my workflows. Despite these constraints, I made significant progress on my development tasks.

Why Upgrade Now?

Now that I have a solid understanding of Claude Code’s capabilities, I’m ready to explore its more advanced features without constantly managing limitations:

  1. Opus Without Worry: I want to use the more powerful Opus model when tasks require it, without fear of burning through my allocation.

  2. Parallel Workflows: I’m eager to try multiple agents working on single requests and run sessions across multiple terminals when it makes sense.

  3. Reduced Cognitive Load: No more timing my sessions or rationing features - I can focus purely on the work.

The Price Consideration

The jump from £15 to £75 per month isn’t trivial - it’s a 5x increase. For context, my most expensive developer subscription until now has been O’Reilly Safari at around £35/month.

What made this decision easier was my commitment to the single-minded focus experiment I mentioned in a previous post. When you’re deliberately concentrating on mastering one tool, the investment becomes more justifiable.

Looking Ahead

Will the Max plan be worth the significant price increase? Time will tell. I’ll be sharing my experiences in future posts, including:

  • How my usage patterns change without limits
  • Whether Opus delivers noticeably better results for complex tasks
  • If parallel agents truly accelerate development
  • The actual ROI in terms of productivity gains

Stay tuned for the verdict!