claude-peak-hours

Know when Claude Code is at peak capacity. Stop guessing why your limits drain fast.

Claude Code session limits drain faster during peak hours (weekdays 5-11 AM PT). This tool tells you when it's happening and what to do about it.

Works as a CLI tool (npx claude-peak-hours) and a Claude Code skill (/peak-check).

The Problem

In March 2026, Anthropic started adjusting session limits during peak hours. During weekday mornings (Pacific Time), your 5-hour session limit drains faster than normal. Your weekly total stays the same, but the burn rate increases.

Users reported:

• 58% of session consumed in 40 minutes
• 3% drained on a single "hey claude" message
• Same workloads going from 20-30% to 80-100% usage

The fix is simple: know when peak hours are active and plan accordingly.

Quick Start

No install needed:

npx claude-peak-hours

Output:

  OFF-PEAK   Normal rate — full speed ahead

  Pacific Time   12:36 PM  Friday, Mar 27
  Your Time      10:36 PM  Europe/Istanbul
  Peak Window    5:00 AM — 11:00 AM PT  weekdays only

  64h 24m until next peak window

  Off-peak. Full speed ahead — your limits drain at normal rate.

  DO:
    + Run heavy agentic workflows now
    + Do bulk operations and batch jobs
    + Start complex multi-file refactors
    + Use Opus for deep reasoning tasks
    + Run parallel agents freely

  AVOID:
    - Nothing — this is your best window. Use it.

During peak hours:

  PEAK HOURS   Session limits drain faster right now

  Pacific Time   08:15 AM  Wednesday, Mar 26
  Your Time      04:15 PM  Europe/London
  Peak Window    5:00 AM — 11:00 AM PT  weekdays only

  2h 45m until off-peak

  Peak hours active. Your session limits drain faster right now.

  DO:
    + Use /model sonnet or /model haiku for lighter tasks
    + Keep conversations short — start fresh chats per topic
    + Front-load full context in your first message
    + Do code reviews, planning, and reading instead
    + Queue heavy agentic work for after peak

  AVOID:
    - Long multi-turn agentic sessions
    - Running multiple parallel agents
    - Bulk operations (batch blogs, mass refactors)
    - Starting new complex projects

Install

Option 1: CLI Tool

# Run directly (no install)
npx claude-peak-hours

# Or install globally
npm install -g claude-peak-hours

# Then run
claude-peak

JSON output for scripting:

npx claude-peak-hours --json

{
  "isPeak": true,
  "pacificTime": "08:15 AM",
  "pacificDate": "Wednesday, Mar 26",
  "localTime": "04:15 PM",
  "localTimezone": "Europe/London",
  "nextEvent": "off-peak",
  "timeUntilChange": { "hours": 2, "minutes": 45 },
  "recommendations": {
    "summary": "Peak hours active. Your session limits drain faster right now.",
    "do": ["Use /model sonnet or /model haiku for lighter tasks", "..."],
    "avoid": ["Long multi-turn agentic sessions", "..."]
  }
}

Option 2: Claude Code Skill

Copy the skill file into your project:

mkdir -p .claude/skills
curl -o .claude/skills/peak-check.md https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mergisi/claude-peak-hours/main/skill/peak-check.md

Then use it in Claude Code:

/peak-check

Claude will check the current time and give you contextual advice.

Peak Hours Reference

| | Peak | Off-Peak | |---|---|---| | When | Weekdays 5:00-11:00 AM PT | All other times + weekends | | Effect | Session limits drain faster | Normal drain rate | | Weekly total | Unchanged | Unchanged | | Who's affected | ~7% of users (Pro tier most impacted) | — |

Time Zone Conversion

| Time Zone | Peak Window | |---|---| | Pacific (PT) | 5:00 AM - 11:00 AM | | Mountain (MT) | 6:00 AM - 12:00 PM | | Central (CT) | 7:00 AM - 1:00 PM | | Eastern (ET) | 8:00 AM - 2:00 PM | | UTC/GMT | 1:00 PM - 7:00 PM | | CET (Europe) | 2:00 PM - 8:00 PM | | IST (India) | 6:30 PM - 12:30 AM | | JST (Japan) | 10:00 PM - 4:00 AM | | AEST (Australia) | 12:00 AM - 6:00 AM* |

*Next day

Tips to Maximize Your Limits

During peak hours:

1. Switch models — /model sonnet or /model haiku costs fewer tokens
2. Keep chats short — Long conversations cost exponentially more (every message carries full context)
3. Front-load context — Put everything Claude needs in the first message
4. Do lighter work — Code reviews, planning, documentation, reading
5. Queue heavy tasks — Save agentic workflows for off-peak

During off-peak:

1. Run heavy workloads — Bulk operations, multi-agent tasks, complex refactors
2. Use Opus freely — No drain penalty
3. Batch your work — Do all the expensive stuff in one session

Always:

• Cached input tokens don't count toward your ITPM limit — with 80% cache hit, you get effectively 5x your limit
• Weekends are always off-peak
• Starting a fresh chat is cheaper than continuing a long one

Use in Scripts

const { getStatus, isPeakHours } = require('claude-peak-hours');

if (isPeakHours()) {
  console.log('Peak hours — scheduling for later');
} else {
  console.log('Off-peak — running now');
}

const status = getStatus();
console.log(status.timeUntilChange); // { hours: 2, minutes: 45 }

Background

On March 23, 2026, Claude Code users started reporting dramatically faster session limit drain. Three days later, Anthropic's Thariq Shihipar confirmed they were adjusting 5-hour session limits during peak hours to manage growing demand.

The change was driven by a massive influx of users — Claude hit #1 on the US App Store after ChatGPT uninstalls jumped 295% following OpenAI's Pentagon contract announcement. Anthropic's GPU capacity couldn't scale fast enough.

Key facts:

• Weekly totals are unchanged — same amount, redistributed
• ~7% of users hit limits they wouldn't have before
• Pro tier ($20/mo) is most affected
• Max 20x ($200/mo) is least affected (~2%)

Contributing

Found a bug? Peak hours changed? Open an issue or submit a PR.

License

MIT