What happens to my session when the plan limit hits?

It continues. The same conversation flows onto metered billing through your Finest key, and flips back to your plan when the window resets. No restart, no lost context.

Do I have to abandon my Claude subscription?

No. The plan serves first, to its cap. Finest Code is the overflow, not the replacement, and it stands down automatically at reset.

What does overflow usage cost?

The host's published rate for what you use, with no model markup. Finest's fee is 25% of savings it proves per request, and per-key spend caps bound the total.

Can I still choose my exact model?

Yes. Pins serve verbatim: /model with any supported model name runs exactly that model, with a receipt per request.

Guides

Run Claude Code past its plan limits

The five-hour window and the weekly cap end sessions at the worst possible moment: mid-task, context loaded, an hour from done. The fix is architectural, not another timer.

Last updated 2026-08-19

The short answer

When Claude Code reaches its plan limit, Finest Code keeps the session going: your plan serves to its cap, then the same conversation continues on metered billing through a Finest key, and flips back automatically when the plan window resets. Nothing is copied, restarted, or lost. You pay the host's rate for the overflow you use, with no model markup, per-key spend caps, and a receipt per request.

An engraved hourglass run empty, its brass valve open to a second vessel that continues to pour a luminous stream.

The overflow valve

The plan you already pay for remains the first source: it serves until its cap, as it does today. At the cap, the session continues on metered billing rather than ending, and when the plan window resets, serving flips back. The unit that survives is the one that matters, the conversation, with its context intact. Capacity planning stops being a reason to lose an afternoon's working state.

Pick a lane, never pick a model

Metered serving through Finest Code offers two lanes. Finest Frontier for the hardest work, Finest Quick for speed, and the gateway selects difficulty, effort, and model within the lane, bounded by sealed evidence. Everything else is a pin: name any supported model with /model and it serves verbatim, never second-guessed. The receipt names the model, the tier, and the bound, so the lane is an instruction, not a leap of faith.

The money stays visible

Overflow is metered at the host's published rate with no markup, and Finest's fee applies only as 25% of savings it proves on a request. Per-key caps on requests, tokens, and spend mean a runaway loop dies at the number you chose instead of on your card statement. A statusline can show session spend, the pinned counterfactual, and sealed swaps live in your terminal, and every request carries its receipt.

Questions people ask

What happens to my session when the plan limit hits?: It continues. The same conversation flows onto metered billing through your Finest key, and flips back to your plan when the window resets. No restart, no lost context.
Do I have to abandon my Claude subscription?: No. The plan serves first, to its cap. Finest Code is the overflow, not the replacement, and it stands down automatically at reset.
What does overflow usage cost?: The host's published rate for what you use, with no model markup. Finest's fee is 25% of savings it proves per request, and per-key spend caps bound the total.
Can I still choose my exact model?: Yes. Pins serve verbatim: /model with any supported model name runs exactly that model, with a receipt per request.

How to cut LLM API costs →What is an LLM receipt? →Finest vs OpenRouter →

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No model markup. You pay the host’s rate. 25% of what it proves it saved on a request. No saving, no fee.

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