Anthropic is running a two-week experiment from 13 to 27 March 2026, doubling Claude usage limits for all plan tiers during off-peak hours. Off-peak is defined as any time outside weekday 8AM to 2PM Eastern Time, which covers evenings, early mornings, and entire weekends. Every plan benefits — Free, Pro, Max, and Team users all get twice their normal allocation during those windows.
The move is a clear attempt to smooth out usage patterns and boost overall engagement. Peak hours see heavy demand that strains infrastructure, while off-peak capacity sits underutilised. By incentivising developers to shift their heavy usage sessions to quieter periods, Anthropic gets better infrastructure utilisation while users get more value from their existing plans.
For developers in time zones outside the US East Coast, the timing works out particularly well. European afternoon and evening sessions, Asian morning work hours, and Australian daytime all fall squarely in the off-peak window. It is worth restructuring your heavy Claude Code sessions around these hours while the promotion lasts.
