THE VERDICT
● Five-hour windows — you are never stuck long, and you cannot bank anything.
● Weekly pools — flexible until Thursday, then you are done for days.
● Credits — the most predictable, and the easiest to burn without noticing.
● The question: what does your worst day look like on each?
Three ways to hit a wall
| Five-hour window | Weekly pool | Credits |
|---|
| Used by | Codex | Claude, SuperGrok | Cursor |
| Worst case | Wait a few hours | Wait until the week resets | Pay overage |
| Can you bank unused | No | Within the week, yes | Within the month |
| Shared with other products | No | Yes. Chat, Code and Cowork | No |
| Can you see what you used | Roughly | /usage | Itemised |
| Terms changed recently | Cap restored late August | Settled 17% lower 14 Sept | Unchanged |
THE SHARED POOL IS THE ONE PEOPLE GET WRONG
On Claude Pro and Max, chat, Claude Code and Cowork draw from one weekly allowance. A heavy Cowork week costs you coding capacity, and nothing warns you until it is gone.
Salesforce in Claude went to open beta on every paid plan this week and nobody has said whether it draws on the same pool. If it does, a sales team and an engineering team are now competing for one budget.
Which shape fits your work
| If you... | Prefer |
|---|
| Work in bursts a few days a week | Weekly pool. You can spend it when you need it |
| Code steadily every day | Five-hour windows. You will rarely notice them |
| Need the bill to be exact | Credits. The only itemised option |
| Use one vendor for several things | Check whether the pool is shared before you commit |
| Run anything unattended | None of these. API with a per-run spend cap |
FAQ
Which metering is cheapest?
Wrong question. At the same price the difference is how you run out, and that decides whether a deadline week works or not.
Does Claude Code really share with chat?
On Pro and Max, yes. Chat, Claude Code and Cowork draw from one weekly allowance. Run /usage to see where you are.
Will limits keep tightening?
Every change this quarter went one way. Plan on that continuing rather than on a promotion returning.