About PeakClaude¶
PeakClaude is a simple real-time tracker that shows whether Claude Code is currently in peak or off-peak hours.
Why does this exist?¶
In March 2026, Anthropic introduced peak hours for Claude Code to manage growing demand. During peak hours, 5-hour session limits are distributed more tightly, which can affect heavy users — especially on the Pro tier.
The schedule is straightforward but easy to forget, particularly across time zones. PeakClaude gives you a glanceable answer: peak or not?
How peak hours work¶
| Period | When (Pacific Time) | When (GMT/UTC) |
|---|---|---|
| Peak | Weekdays 5:00 AM - 11:00 AM | Weekdays 1:00 PM - 7:00 PM |
| Off-peak | All other times | All other times |
- Weekends are entirely off-peak.
- Weekly token limits stay the same — only the per-session distribution changes.
- About 7% of users are affected, mostly those running token-intensive workflows during peak windows.
Tips for working with peak hours¶
- Schedule heavy jobs off-peak. Background tasks, large refactors, and batch operations are best run outside the peak window.
- Use weekends. Saturday and Sunday have no peak restrictions at all.
- Monitor your usage. If you're hitting session limits, check whether you're consistently working during peak hours.
How it works¶
PeakClaude runs entirely in the browser. It uses JavaScript's Intl.DateTimeFormat with the America/Los_Angeles timezone to determine the current Pacific Time, then compares it against the known peak schedule. No server, no API calls, no tracking.
Source¶
Peak hours were announced by Anthropic in March 2026:
To manage growing demand for Claude, we're adjusting our 5 hour session limits for free/pro/max subscriptions during on-peak hours. Your weekly limits remain unchanged. During peak hours (weekdays, 5am–11am PT / 1pm–7pm GMT), you'll move through your 5-hour session limits faster than before. Overall weekly limits stay the same, just how they're distributed across the week is changing. We've landed a lot of efficiency wins to offset this, but ~7% of users will hit session limits they wouldn't have before, particularly in pro tiers. If you run token-intensive background jobs, shifting them to off-peak hours will stretch your session limits further.
Source: Update on session limits (r/ClaudeAI)
Built by¶
Created by pforret using MkDocs Material. Source code on GitHub.