Claude Code (and the wider Claude app) exposes a Usage limits screen that confuses a lot of people, because it shows two different bars that reset on two different clocks. If you only watch one of them you will either worry unnecessarily or get surprised when a request is throttled. Here is how to read the screen and what the numbers actually mean.
Where to find it
Open Settings, then pick Usage from the left navigation. On a Team workspace the header reads “Your usage limits” with the plan name next to it. The page lists every model family your plan can call and the two reset timers that govern them.
Two windows, not one
The single most common mistake is treating the page as if it has one quota. It has two independent ones:
- Current session — a rolling cap that resets in roughly 1 hour 20 minutes. This is the short-term throttle. When it refills you get a fresh slice of usage immediately.
- All models (weekly) — a separate cap that resets in roughly 14 hours, i.e. on the weekly cadence. This is the long-term budget across every model you use.
They are tracked separately. You can be nearly full on the session bar and only midway on the weekly bar, or vice versa. The progress bar next to each one (filled in the app’s accent color) shows the used percentage, so you can see at a glance how much headroom is left in that specific window.
What the percentage means
Each bar shows how much of that window’s allowance you have consumed. A high percentage on the session bar is low-stakes: it refills in about eighty minutes. A high percentage on the weekly bar matters more, because the next refill is a day or more away and heavy work will eat into it fast.
The practical read: if you are about to do a big coding push, the session reset is your quick “free” refill; the weekly reset is the one that governs whether you can sustain a multi-day grind.
Temporary boosts
The Usage screen also surfaces promotions. These are time-boxed increases to a specific limit that automatically revert to your plan’s standard amount when they expire.
A typical example shown in the UI: a Claude Code limit boosted by 50% through a stated date, and a Cowork limit boosted by 100% (doubled) through another stated date. The wording is explicit that “when each promotion ends, limits return to your plan’s standard amounts.”
Three things to internalize:
- A boost lifts the ceiling, it does not change the clock. The reset timers above keep running on their normal schedule.
- Boosts are independent per product. A Claude Code boost and a Cowork boost can have different end dates.
- Boosts do not stack into your baseline. When the window closes, the limit silently drops back to the plan’s normal number. Plan heavy work before the promotion ends, not after.
How to use this in practice
- Watch the session bar when you are in an active flow and hitting throttles — a short wait usually clears it.
- Watch the weekly bar when planning a multi-day sprint; if it is deep into the red, pace your largest tasks before the weekly reset.
- Treat any boost as a deadline: schedule the work that benefits from the higher ceiling inside the promotion window.
The official docs explain the exact mechanics per plan. The key mental model is simple: one short rolling window, one weekly window, and optional time-boxed boosts that always revert.
Conclusion
The Usage limits screen is not one quota but two clocks plus occasional boosts. Once you separate the rolling session cap from the weekly cap — and remember that boosts are temporary by design — the bars stop being a mystery and become a planning tool.
