Wait for a usage limit to reset

When a claude.ai usage limit stops Claude mid-task, Claude Code waits in the open session and continues the task on its own after the limit resets. Automatic continue is on by default in interactive sessions signed in with a claude.ai subscription. Requires Claude Code v2.1.234 or later.

While Claude Code waits, a line at the bottom of the session shows when it will continue:

Usage limit reached · continuing automatically at 3:45pm · esc to cancel

Keep the session open. What happens next depends on how the wait ends:

• At the reset: the line reads continuing shortly, then Usage limit reset · continuing automatically, and Claude Code sends Claude a fixed prompt to pick the task up where it stopped. It doesn't resend your last message.
• After your computer slept: if it slept for more than about 30 minutes and the limit reset while it slept, the line reads Your usage limit has reset · press enter to continue. Press Enter to continue. After a shorter sleep, Claude Code continues on its own.
• Early: when you finish adding usage credits with /usage-credits, sign back in after /upgrade, or switch models with /model during the wait, Claude Code checks whether usage is available again and continues right away if it is. It doesn't check after an upgrade or purchase you make in a browser on your own. Under opusplan and other model settings that run plan mode on a different model, Claude Code waits for the reset instead.

The continued task runs like any other turn. Claude Code still asks for permissions as usual, so the task can stop on a prompt while you're away. If it hits the limit again, Claude Code re-arms the wait on its own at most twice in a row, then stops and shows Automatic continue stopped after repeated usage-limit hits · /rate-limit-options to try again.

Cancel the wait

Press Esc at an empty prompt, or Ctrl+C, while the line shows, or run /rate-limit-options and pick Don't continue automatically. Claude Code confirms with a line that starts Automatic continue cancelled.

After a cancel, nothing continues until you send a prompt or pick the row that starts Wait here, then continue automatically from /rate-limit-options again. Claude Code doesn't start a wait on its own again for that reset window; the next reset window starts fresh.

The wait also ends without continuing the task in these cases:

• You send a prompt: Claude Code runs your prompt instead of waiting.
• You exit Claude Code: the wait doesn't restart when you resume the session.
• The conversation changes hands: you switch accounts with /login, clear or rewind the conversation, /resume another session, pull one with /teleport, relaunch with /tui, or hand the session to Claude Desktop, a background session, or the cloud.
• The setting turns off, or the reset moves past 24 hours: this ends only a wait Claude Code started on its own. A wait you picked from /rate-limit-options keeps counting down.
• The continuation is blocked: a UserPromptSubmit hook that blocks the continuation prompt, or a failure before it reaches the model, ends the wait. Claude Code tells you the continuation didn't run. Send a prompt to continue.

Start a wait yourself

Claude Code doesn't start the wait on its own in these cases:

• Remote Control and agent team teammate sessions: a person at that terminal can still start one.
• A reset more than 24 hours away: a weekly limit can reset days out.
• An Opus or Sonnet limit while you run a model outside that family: your next turn may not hit that limit. opusplan and other model settings that run plan mode on the limited family don't get this exception.

In those cases, and whenever automatic continue is off, Claude Code opens the usage-limit options menu once per reset window when you hit a limit at your own terminal. Pick the row that starts Wait here, then continue automatically to start the wait. In a Remote Control or agent team teammate session, run /rate-limit-options yourself to open the menu.

Claude Code doesn't offer the wait at all in these cases:

• Background sessions and -p runs: the menu row isn't available.
• API keys, cloud providers, and usage-based billing: usage there is metered per request, so there is no reset to wait for.
• An LLM gateway without a saved claude.ai login: Claude Code offers the wait only while a saved claude.ai login is the active credential.

Turn automatic continue off

In /config, turn off Continue automatically at usage limit, or set autoContinueAtUsageLimit to false in your user settings. /config autoContinueAtUsageLimit=false also works, including with -p, but the key=value form can't turn it back on, because the setting grants unattended execution. Which settings files Claude Code reads for this key is in the settings reference.