How do I check my Claude usage, and what if I hit my limit?
Overview
Every student, faculty and staff member gets the same no-cost standard Claude seat. Chat, Cowork and Code share its usage limits, which reset on their own over time. Faculty and staff who need more can get a Premium seat with department funds.
Check your usage
Open claude.ai/settings/usage (opens in a new tab) to see what you've used and when each limit resets. If you hit a limit, wait for it to reset. You can't ask for more usage inside Claude; that option is turned off.
Tips to save usage
- Use Chat instead of Cowork for simple, one-step work.
- Start with Sonnet, and switch to Opus if you need more. Opus uses more of your limit.
- Haiku uses the least of your limit and is best suited for quick, simple tasks.
- Start a new chat for an unrelated question. A long chat uses more of your limit with every message, so don't keep one chat going for everything.
Extending your limit
Your limits reset on their own over time. To go beyond them, you need a Premium seat, which a department pays for (see below).
Premium seats
| Standard seat | Premium seat | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | No cost | Paid with department funds |
| Who can get it | Every student, faculty and staff member | Faculty and staff (students: see below) |
| Usage | Limits you can't raise | Higher limits, still capped |
| Fable model | Not available | Available |
- Faculty and staff: request the Claude Premium access package in MyAccess (opens in a new tab). Your department head may need to approve the funding.
- Students: ITS doesn't offer Premium seats to students. If you're a student worker and a department will pay for one, ask your supervisor to contact aihelp@syr.edu.
- Heavy Premium users: if you expect to go past the Premium limit, ITS can set up pay-as-you-go billing with a spending cap. Try Premium first, and email aihelp@syr.edu if you hit the limit often.
Troubleshooting
- The usage page shows an extra usage limit of $0. This is normal on a standard seat.
- You ran out after only a few Cowork tasks. Chat, Cowork and Code share the same usage limits, and a single Cowork task can use far more than the same request in Chat.
- Fable isn't in your model list. Fable needs a Premium seat.
Additional information
- Anthropic, the company that makes Claude, sets the limits, not ITS.
- Need more usage without a Premium seat? Try Agentic OS (opens in a new tab) (formerly mentorAI), where students, faculty and staff build their own AI agents. It includes Claude models and has higher limits.
Official links
Still need help?
If this did not answer your question, submit a request and the ITS Data and AI team will follow up.
Contact ITS AI Support