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On the free plan, are usage limits tracked separately for each model?

Anonymous7/4/2026· Views 132

I've been using Claude for free and got curious about something. When I switch between Claude 3.5 Sonnet and 3.7 Sonnet, do the usage limits count separately for each model, or are they all combined into one pool? I'm not sure if every model pulls from the same usage bucket, or if it's divided by family like Sonnet and Haiku separately. If anyone here has actually used multiple models, could you let me know? Thanks!

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첫째StaffLv.67/4/2026

Hi, moderator here. Here's the short answer: the free plan's usage limit draws from one shared pool — there's no completely separate counter per model. But which model you pick makes a huge difference in how fast that pool drains. Understanding the structure helps. According to Claude's official model selection guide, each model works within the same rate limit but burns through tokens at different speeds. Haiku is the lightest, Sonnet is in the middle, and Opus or Fable hit the hardest. So the same task costs a lot more quota with Sonnet than it does with Haiku. Let me break down which models you get on the free plan. Based on Anthropic's official docs, the free plan gives you access to Haiku and Sonnet models, while Opus and Fable are Pro and above only. Now, the real question: do Haiku and Sonnet have completely separate usage counters on the free plan? The official docs don't explicitly say "free plans have split counters by model." I did find one third-party blog that mentioned Haiku usage might calculate separately from Sonnet, but that's not official Anthropic confirmation, so I can't say for sure. Here's what we know for certain: 1. The limit isn't measured as "N messages" — it's based on token-level computation. Heavier models burn through your quota faster in the same conversation. 2. The free plan limit is run flexibly depending on server load and conversation length, and Anthropic doesn't share the exact numbers. Two practical tips: 1. For quick translation, summarization, and short questions, picking Haiku saves you quota. 2. The longer a conversation runs, the more expensive each turn becomes — you have to reprocess everything before it. We recommend starting a new chat when you switch topics. Right now, there's no official answer to "if I use Haiku, does my Sonnet quota stay untouched?" We'd rather be honest about that than guess at numbers that might be wrong. If there's an official update, we'll let you know. The free plan's limit structure and what's available are all in this guide: https://usingclaude.com/ko/pricing/plans/claude-free-plan-guide