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Rajesh Royal
Rajesh Royal

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/usage: Know Your Limits, Then Exceed Them

#tutorial #claudecode #productivity #beginners

Real-time visibility into your Claude consumption — and what to do when you need more

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You're deep in a complex refactoring session. Claude is on fire, helping you restructure an entire module. The pieces are coming together beautifully. Then, mid-thought: rate limit. Session over. Come back in an hour.

Nothing kills momentum like an unexpected wall. Especially one you could have seen coming.

What if you always knew exactly where you stood? What if hitting limits was a choice, not a surprise?

The Problem

Claude Code usage isn't infinite — there are rate limits and consumption caps depending on your plan. But most developers fly blind:

  • "How many requests have I made today?"
  • "Am I about to hit my hourly limit?"
  • "What's my monthly consumption looking like?"
  • "Should I save my remaining quota for the complex task later?"

Without visibility, you can't plan. You start a massive codebase analysis not knowing you only have 10 requests left. You spread trivial questions throughout the day instead of batching them. You hit walls at the worst possible moments.

And when you do hit limits, what are your options? Wait? Switch to a less capable tool? The friction is real.

The Solution: /usage

Two simple commands give you complete control over your Claude consumption.

How to Use It

Check your current usage status:

/usage
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Output:

📊 Claude Code Usage

Today:        847 / 1,000 requests (84.7%)
This hour:     43 / 100 requests (43%)
This month:  12.4k / 50k requests (24.8%)

Context tokens used: 127,432
Response tokens used: 89,221

Rate limit resets in: 17 minutes
Monthly reset: 23 days

💡 Tip: Use /extra-usage to increase your limits
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At a glance, you know exactly where you stand. Plan accordingly.

Removing the Ceiling

When you need more horsepower:

/extra-usage
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This activates expanded limits for your session. The specifics depend on your plan, but the concept is simple: when you need to go beyond standard consumption, you can.

⚡ Extra Usage Activated

Your limits have been expanded for this session:
- Hourly requests: 100 → 500
- Daily requests: 1,000 → 5,000  
- Context window: Standard → Extended

Note: Extra usage may incur additional charges.
Use /usage to monitor your expanded consumption.
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Detailed Breakdowns

Want to understand your usage patterns?

/usage --detailed
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📈 Detailed Usage Report

By command type:
  Code generation:    312 requests (37%)
  Code analysis:      289 requests (34%)
  Refactoring:        156 requests (18%)
  Documentation:       90 requests (11%)

By project:
  api-service:        412 requests
  frontend-app:       298 requests
  shared-library:     137 requests

Highest usage hour: 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM (87 requests)
Average request size: 2,341 tokens
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Pro Tips

  1. Morning check ritual: Start each workday with /usage. Know your runway before you start flying.

  2. Batch strategically: If you're at 90% of your hourly limit, batch your remaining questions instead of spacing them out. Hit the limit, take a break, come back refreshed.

  3. Size your prompts: /usage shows token consumption. If you're burning through tokens, consider more focused prompts instead of huge context dumps.

  4. Set mental thresholds: "Below 50% daily usage = explore freely. Above 80% = essential tasks only." Create your own usage disciplines.

  5. Extra usage for sprints: Starting a high-intensity session? Activate /extra-usage upfront rather than hitting walls mid-flow.

  6. Track across projects: The --detailed breakdown by project helps you understand which codebases are most AI-intensive. Useful for team planning and resource allocation.

Real-World Use Case

A solo developer building a SaaS product described their before-and-after:

Before /usage:

"I'd hit rate limits at random times, always during something important. I started getting paranoid, rationing my Claude interactions 'just in case.' I was underutilizing my plan out of fear of the unknown."

After /usage:

"Now I check usage at the start of each session and before any big task. If I'm at 80% hourly, I either wait 15 minutes or hit /extra-usage if the task is critical. I've stopped hitting surprise walls entirely."

The key insight: "I realized I was usually nowhere near my limits. The anxiety was worse than the reality. Now I have data instead of fear."

For team leads, /usage --detailed provides insights for capacity planning:

"I noticed our team's Claude usage spiked 300% during sprint reviews — everyone asking for help with documentation and PR descriptions at the same time. We adjusted our limits and staggered usage windows. No more end-of-sprint rate limit chaos."

Conclusion

You can't manage what you can't measure. /usage transforms Claude consumption from a mystery into a metric. You see where you are. You anticipate where you're going. And when you need more, /extra-usage removes the ceiling.

Stop flying blind. Start flying informed.

Tomorrow: What if Claude could explore, analyze, and plan — but not execute? Day 29 introduces Plan Mode, where you think twice before executing once.

When was the last time you hit an unexpected limit? With /usage, make it the last time ever.

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