Anthropic quietly strips Claude Code access from Pro plan, effective April 21

Anthropic changed how it described Claude Code access on April 21, touching off confusion over whether the coding tool had been removed from the company’s $20-a-month Pro plan. XDA Developers reported that Anthropic updated its pricing and support language that day to show Claude Code as unavailable on Pro for some new subscribers, while keeping access for existing Pro users. (xda-developers.com) Anthropic Head of Growth Amol Avasare said on X, as quoted in XDA and Hacker News posts linking to his remarks, that the company was running a “small test” on about 2% of new prosumer signups. (news.ycombinator.com) Anthropic’s current Help Center page now says Claude Code works with “Pro or Max” plans and shows an update timestamp of today. (support.claude.com) ### What exactly changed on April 21? XDA Developers reported on April 21 that Anthropic’s pricing page no longer showed Claude Code as included with Pro for some new subscribers. The outlet said the company’s support documentation also changed from “Use Claude Code with your Pro or Max plan” to “Use Claude Code with your Max plan,” matching what users were posting on X and other forums that day. Hacker News comments linking to Avasare’s posts said Anthropic described the move as a test rather than a full rollout. One quoted post said existing Pro and Max subscribers were not affected, and another said customers would get notice before any change that affected existing subscribers. (xda-developers.com) ### Who was affected by the test? Avasare’s statement, as reproduced in discussion threads and cited by XDA, said the test applied to about 2% of new prosumer signups. XDA said current Pro and Max subscribers were unaffected, which meant the immediate issue was centered on new customers who were comparing plan features at signup. (xda-developers.com) The uncertainty came from the mismatch between Anthropic’s public-facing plan language and the company’s description of the change as limited. XDA reported that the pricing page had already been updated broadly enough to suggest to readers that Pro no longer included Claude Code, even as Anthropic said most new signups should still receive it. (news.ycombinator.com) ### What does Anthropic’s documentation say now? Anthropic’s Help Center currently carries an article titled “Use Claude Code with your Pro or Max plan.” The article says it applies to “individual consumers using Pro or Max plan subscriptions to access Claude Code” and instructs users to authenticate Claude Code with the same account credentials they use for Claude. (xda-developers.com) The same article also says Pro and Max plans share usage limits across Claude and Claude Code, and tells Pro users who hit limits to consider upgrading to Max 5x. That language indicates that, as of the current version of the support page, Pro access to Claude Code is described as available. (xda-developers.com) ### Has Anthropic said why it was testing this? The New Stack, citing Avasare’s posts, reported that Anthropic said “usage has changed a lot and our current plans weren’t built for this.” XDA also said Avasare told users in a reply that the company wanted to see whether removing Claude Code from some Pro signups would reduce server load. (support.claude.com) Anthropic has separately said Claude Code demand has risen. In a company post published last week, Anthropic said it was doubling Claude Code’s five-hour rate limits for Pro, Max, Team and seat-based Enterprise plans and removing peak-hours limit reductions for Pro and Max accounts. (support.claude.com) ### Where does the plan stand now? Anthropic’s live support documentation now points back to Pro-and-Max access, not Max-only access. The Help Center collection for Claude Code lists the current consumer article as “Use Claude Code with your Pro or Max plan,” and the article itself is marked updated today. (anthropic.com) Anthropic has not, in the material reviewed, published a standalone announcement setting out a permanent new rule for Pro subscribers. The next public marker will be changes on Anthropic’s pricing pages, Help Center articles, or statements from named executives including Avasare. (support.claude.com 1) (support.claude.com 2) (anthropic.com)