Anthropic Faces Lawsuit Over Allegedly Misleading Claude AI Pricing

Anthropic is facing a class action lawsuit alleging that the AI ​​company misled customers about the amount of usage included in its premium Claude Max plans.

The complaintfiled June 14 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California by customer Karl Kahn, seeks to represent other Claude subscribers who purchased the company’s Max plans, claiming that Anthropic misled customers about the amount of usage included in the premium subscription levels.

In the lawsuit, Kahn said he subscribed to Claude Pro in June 2025 before switching to Maximum 5x in January, and Max 20x in April this year. Kahn claims he overpaid for both plans, received less usage than Anthropic advertised, and sometimes purchased additional usage after reaching plan limits.

According to Vaca Daffan LLP Founding Partner Kati Daffan, who represents Kahn, the case is rooted in established consumer protection laws that prohibit companies from misleading users about the products and services they sell.

“This is a very good kind of case for a class action because the law is very clear that companies must be honest about their advertising and marketing,” Daffan said. Declutter. “If they don’t, they could be held liable, have to change their ways and refund money to people. Civil actions like this are filed every day against companies that misrepresent something about their product or service.”

Anthropic offers various subscriptions levels for individual users, from a free plan with limited use to the paid Pro and Max plans. The Pro plan costs $20 per month or $200 per year and is aimed at regular users, while Max is aimed at customers who use Claude more intensively.

Max 5x costs $100 per month and is marketed as an option that offers five times the usage capacity of the Pro plan per session. Max 20x costs $200 per month and is marketed as 20 times the usage capacity of the Pro plan per session. Anthropic says Max subscribers will also get priority access to new models and features, access to Claude Code, and higher usage limits intended to reduce interruptions during longer workflows.

The complaint alleges that Anthropic failed to clearly explain how usage was measured, making it difficult for subscribers to determine whether they were receiving the amount of access promised under the Max plans.

According to Daffan, the lack of transparency may help explain why similar lawsuits haven’t been filed before, arguing that consumers didn’t have the information needed to verify they were receiving the advertised level of service.

“It’s really not easy for a normal consumer to know whether they’re getting the amount they’re promised or not because that information is simply not provided,” she said. “So you can see a lot of people on Reddit and other boards saying that they feel like maybe they didn’t get what they were promised, but it took a lot of effort to connect the dots and work to piece together what was really going on here.”

The lawsuit seeks damages, restitution, injunctive and declaratory relief, attorneys’ fees and costs, and asks the court to certify a class action on behalf of all U.S. residents who purchased or upgraded a Claude Max 5x or Max 20x subscription through Claude.com or the Claude desktop app between April 9, 2025 and the present.

Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Declutter.

The Claude maker is not the only one to market premium AI subscriptions based on higher usage limits. OpenAI, GooglingAnd Bewilderment all offer plans that cost between $100 and $200 per month, promising expanded access to advanced AI models and higher usage rights.

The lawsuit comes days after Anthropic launched Claude Fable 5 and Claude Mythos 5, its most advanced AI models to date. Mythos 5 was limited to approved cybersecurity organizations, critical infrastructure operators, government partners, and select researchers, while Fable 5 was released for broader public use with additional safeguards.

The rollout quickly sparked criticism from some users and developers over usage limits, “invisible safeguards” and limitations, and the model’s tendency to consume subscription fees faster than previous Claude models. Days later, the US government ordered Anthropic to suspend access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 for foreigners, citing national security concerns related to a possible vulnerability to jailbreaks.