Anthropic Faces Lawsuit Over Allegedly Misleading Claude AI Pricing

By Jason Nelson

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

The complaint, filed 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 and alleges Anthropic misled customers about the amount of usage included with its premium subscription tiers.

In the lawsuit, Kahn said he subscribed to Claude Pro in June 2025 before upgrading to Max 5x in January, and Max 20x in April of this year. Kahn alleges that he overpaid for both subscriptions, received less usage than Anthropic advertised, and at times purchased additional usage after reaching plan limits.

According to Vaca Daffan LLP Founding Partner Kati Daffan, who is representing 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 really good type of case for a class action, because the law is very clear that companies have to be honest about their advertising and marketing,” Daffan told Decrypt. “If they're not, they can be held liable, need to change their ways, and refund money to people. Civil actions like this are brought every day against companies that misrepresent something about their product or service."

Anthropic offers several subscription tiers for individual users, from a free plan with limited usage to its paid Pro and Max plans. Its Pro plan costs $20 per month or $200 per year and is intended for regular users, while Max is aimed at customers who use Claude more heavily.

Max 5x costs $100 per month and is marketed as providing five times the Pro plan's usage capacity per session. Max 20x costs $200 per month and is marketed as providing 20 times the Pro plan's usage capacity per session. Anthropic says Max subscribers also receive priority access to new models and features, access to Claude Code, and higher usage limits meant to reduce interruptions during longer workflows.

The complaint alleges Anthropic did not 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 no similar lawsuits had previously been filed, arguing that consumers were left without the information needed to verify whether they were receiving the advertised level of service.

"It's really not easy for a normal consumer to know if they're getting the amount they were promised, or if they're not, because that information simply isn't provided,” she said. “So you can see a lot of people expressing on Reddit and other boards that they feel they might not have received what they were promised, but it took a lot of connecting the dots and work to piece together what was actually 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 to 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 by Decrypt.

The Claude maker is not alone in marketing premium AI subscriptions based on higher usage limits. OpenAI, Google, and Perplexity all offer plans that cost between $100 and $200 per month, promising expanded access to advanced AI models and increased usage allowances.

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

The rollout quickly drew criticism from some users and developers over usage limits, “invisible safeguards,” and restrictions, and the model's tendency to consume subscription allowances more quickly than earlier Claude models. Days later, the U.S. government ordered Anthropic to suspend access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 for foreign nationals, citing national security concerns related to a potential jailbreak vulnerability.

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