First: which limit?
Check Settings › Usage or run /usage in Claude Code. If it's the 5-hour session limit, you're waiting hours at most, and the reset time is right there. If it's the weekly limit, it resets at the fixed weekly time assigned to your account, which could be days away. How both limits reset.
Your options right now
Wait for the reset
Free, and often the right call for the session limit. In Claude Code you don't even have to sit there: newer versions can wait at the limit and pick the task up again after the reset. /rate-limit-options lists your choices (Claude Code docs).
Use a limit reset, if you have one
Anthropic occasionally gives eligible plans a saved reset that refills your 5-hour or weekly limit. Look for Reset for free on Settings › Usage or on the limit message (What is a limit reset?). Claude Code users may also have the undocumented /limit-reset command.
Turn on usage credits
On Pro and Max you can keep going past your limit with usage credits (Anthropic used to call this "extra usage"). They're billed at standard API rates, separately from your subscription (usage credits):
- Turn them on in Settings › Usage, add funds, and set a monthly spend limit.
- When they kick in, the notice changes to "Now using credits".
- If you subscribe through the iPhone or Android app, turn them on from the web.
- Prepaid bundles of $50, $250 or $1,000 come with a 10%, 20% or 30% discount (usage bundles).
Upgrade
A bigger plan's limits apply as soon as you upgrade (Anthropic). If you hit the weekly limit week after week, that's the sign. Pro vs Max vs Team compares the plans.
Make the next session last longer
From Anthropic's own advice (usage limit best practices, how limits work, Claude Code):
- Start new chats. Long conversations cost more with every message, because the whole conversation is sent again each turn.
- Pick the model for the job. Opus costs several times more per turn than Sonnet.
- Turn off extended thinking and lower the effort level when you don't need them.
- Go easy on tools. Research, web search and connectors use tokens quickly.
- Keep big files in a Project. Project content is cached and counts for less while the cache is warm.
- In Claude Code, keep CLAUDE.md short, since it's added to every turn, and be careful with big parallel workflows: a burst like that can use up your weekly limit before the session even resets.
See it coming next time
The limit message is the worst time to find out. Usage for Claude keeps your session and weekly usage in the Mac menu bar and on your iPhone, predicts whether you'll run out at your current pace, and can warn you at the threshold you choose, like 80% of the week, while there's still time to change course.