5-hour usage window

Definition

The 5-hour usage window is Claude's session limit: a five-hour period that caps how much you can use Claude, including Claude Code, until it resets.

Also called: five-hour session limit, 5-hour limit, Claude session limit.

Anthropic calls these five-hour stretches sessions: its help centre says the session-based usage limit resets every five hours. Claude's usage page (Settings → Usage) shows how much of the current session you've used and when it resets.

When you get close to the limit, Claude warns you; if you reach it, Claude tells you when it resets. What happens then depends on your plan: see Anthropic's help centre for the current options.

The 5-hour window sits alongside weekly limits, which cap total use over a week and reset on a set day and time. Claude.ai, Claude Code and Claude Desktop all draw from the same allowance. Codex also measures usage in five-hour periods; see plan usage limits.

In Pairbar

The limits card shows Claude's current session (5-hour) window with its reset time, next to the weekly windows. The ring in the header reflects whichever window is fuller. Pairbar reads the numbers from Claude Code's status line (set up by one-click Install of live status for Claude) or the Claude desktop app's own record of the 5-hour window, so it normally starts no claude; claude -p /usage is only a last resort, at most every 15 minutes. See Where the numbers come from.