Hi everyone, I wanted to start a discussion to see if others are experiencing a drastic change in their Pro plan ($20/month) usage limits. I am genuinely confused and frustrated by the current consumption rate.
Here is the situation: I have hit my usage limit after only 116 interactions in this billing cycle. It took just 3 days to exhaust the entire month’s allowance.
I know the system has changed from the old strict “500 requests” model to a more complex calculation (likely usage-based), and I understand that premium models (like the latest Sonnet) consume more resources.
However, the math simply doesn’t add up:
The Benchmark: We used to have a benchmark of around 500 fast requests.
The Expectation: Even if we assume the new models are “heavier” and count for double the cost, a reasonable expectation would still be around 250 interactions.
The Reality:116 requests. That is a massive drop from the previous standard.
I feel quite powerless seeing my quota drain this fast. 116 requests for a monthly Pro subscription feels incredibly low.
Is this the new normal? Has anyone else noticed their quota draining this quickly with similar usage? I’m trying to figure out if this is an anomaly with my account or if the pricing model has quietly become significantly more expensive for everyone.
Actually, it has been quietly getting more expensive for all users. I remember very clearly the moment Cursor switched to token-based pricing. In the first month of using the Pro plan with the new pricing → everything was super great, I could use a lot of requests even Claude Opus MAX MODE. From the second month onwards, I hit the rate limit super fast.
No one commented on this so I didn’t care anymore, maybe all users agreed with this expensiveness.
It’s clear that the quota is being drained far faster than in the past. I’m on the $60/month plan and still have to add funds. I’ve added an additional $125 for January alone. The process is clearly broken, or the models have become significantly more expensive.
The “auto” model selection, supposedly lower-cost models, consistently produces substandard code that must be reanalyzed, re-debugged, and eventually fixed by more expensive models. This cycle quickly creates a costly and inefficient feedback loop. As a result, achieving sustained, real-world productivity becomes unnecessarily difficult and very expensive.
I asked support for this untransparency issue but still not clear. it looks like we begin the month with 20$ and we’ll end paying 500$ just because we code.
I gave up on Cursor because it’s far too expensive. I switched to VS Code with my $20 per month Claude subscription. The workflow with the Claude Code extension is a bit different from Cursor, but fundamentally very similar. I found it easy to adapt to the Claude Code extension.
With Claude, I don’t blindly exhaust my entire monthly quota. I sometimes hit a limit after a few hours of coding, but I can resume my work an hour or two later. That’s much better than constantly having to spend more money with Cursor.
I highly recommend switching to VS Code with the $20 per month Claude subscription and the Claude Code extension. The pricing is far more reasonable.
It does seem there have been major price increases or a major bug introduced in the past 2 months
somehow i spent 3k last month which is unbelievable, contacted support, ai response told me i was double charged, then once redirected to a human they said, nah thats real.
Im a single user using on not even a daily basis, no idea how it scaled up to 3k but it did.
Then I talk to friends who use claude code to see how much they spend and its sub $500 and they run it daily.
But yes usage numbers seem extremely inflated as of the last 2 months.
“I honestly don’t understand why the concept of a ‘monthly subscription’ even exists when it runs out in about 4-6 days of moderately active use… Please introduce a token-based payment system already instead of this useless subscription… I still have 10 days left on my monthly subscription, but I can’t use anything. Just make it purely pay-per-token, like 500k tokens for $5. That way, everyone would roughly know how much to top up for standard development and how many tokens they need to buy.”
Try VS Code with a paid ($20/month) Claude plan and the Claude Code extension. You won’t look back. The resulting code also seems much better. I’m in my second month with Claude Code and can reliably use it in VS Code without exceeding $20. If I do hit a limit, it doesn’t have to cost extra. I just need to pause for 30 to 60 minutes before continuing. This has only happened a couple of times. Honestly, the break is probably a good thing anyway.
Try VS Code with a paid ($20/month) Claude plan and the Claude Code extension, it’s a joy.
