For its Claude chatbot, Anthropic has unveiled Max, a new tiered plan that caters to power customers who have more money and are willing to accept far greater usage caps.
The new product has two versions: a $100 monthly tier that offers five times the usage restrictions of the $20 Claude Pro subscription and a $200 monthly option that increases usage by 20 times. Both tiers promise priority access to Anthropic’s most recent AI models and features, such as Claude’s upcoming speech mode.
The competition between the two top consumer AI chatbot providers is heightened by this pricing structure, which places the top tier squarely against OpenAI’s $200 monthly ChatGPT Pro membership.
Also Read: Anthropic Presents Claude as the Student and Academic Staff Education Plan
It’s a strategic decision at a time when creating AI models is becoming increasingly costly and competitive. According to reports, demand is rising for Anthropologic’s latest “reasoning model,” Claude 3.7 Sonnet. Anthropologic just reached a $61.5 billion valuation, and Claude for Education and enterprise implementations is growing. Like ChatGPT Pro did for OpenAI, which reported a $300 million increase in annualized revenue soon after introduction, a strong premium tier might significantly enhance revenue.
However, Claude Max does not provide infinite usage, in contrast to OpenAI’s proposal. Additionally, the business did not rule out the possibility of future, more expensive tiers—possibly even a $500/month plan—demonstrating its willingness to change in response to user input.
The consumer-grade chatbot market is rapidly developing. The fight for power users—those who use AI to manage their teams, enterprises, or lives—is where the margins are. Free and inexpensive choices are now table stakes.
Also Read: Anthropic AI unveils Claude 3.7 Sonnet, their most intelligent AI model to date
The Max plan promises fewer disruptions and quicker access to state-of-the-art AI for professionals managing data-heavy workflows, startups with tight deadlines, and creatives iterating on long-form content. Users decide if that’s worth $200 a month. For Anthropic, however, it’s just one more move in a high-stakes game to develop and finance the frontier AI of the future.
