The usage limit on your $20/month subscription is not $20 of API tokens (if it was, why subscribe?). Its much much higher, and you can hit the equivalent of $20 of API usage in a few days.

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dudeinhawaii an hour ago | parent | next [-]

I think you've stated this in reverse.

API limits are infinite but you'd blow through $20 of usage in a maybe 1 hours or less of intense Opus use.

The subscription at $20/mo (or $200) allows for vastly more queries than $20 would buy you via API but you are constrained by hourly/weekly limits.

The $20/mo sub user will take a lot longer to complete a high token count task (due to start/stop) BUT they will cap their costs.

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scwoodal 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

So I’m not allowed to use the $20 plan and max out its limits?

	▲	alexandre_m 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Max out on their terms, not yours. Their bet is that most people will not fill up 100% of their weekly usage for 4 consecutive weeks of their monthly plan, because they are humans and the limits impede long running tasks during working hours.
	▲	ac29 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		You can max it out via first party clients only. I dont like it either, but its not an unreasonable restriction.