The 5-hour clock starts when you do. So we start it.

An idle Claude account isn't saving anything for later. Its 5-hour window hasn't started, so it can't reset either. Switch to it at 4 pm and its limit comes back at 9 pm. If it had been used once at 9 am, it would have been fresh again by 2 pm.

So Shuriken starts idle accounts' clocks for you, with one tiny request each, under rules we hold ourselves to.

How Claude's 5-hour window works#

Anthropic's help center says paid plans have two kinds of limits: "a session limit that resets every five hours" and weekly limits that reset once a week (Anthropic, read 22 October 2026). Under Settings › Usage, Claude shows how much of the session limit you've used and "the amount of time remaining in the session" (Anthropic).

The window isn't pinned to the clock on the wall. Not midnight, not the top of the hour: it starts when you start using the account. Anthropic's earlier help article on Max plan usage said so directly (a session starts with your first message). That article has since come down, and the current pages don't spell out the start, but it matches what Shuriken reads from every account. One nobody has used yet shows 0% and no countdown, because nothing is counting down.

(More in our guide to the 5-hour limit and on the weekly limit.)

Why that hurts with more than one account#

With one account it barely matters. With two or three, it costs you hours.

Say you have a Work, a Personal and a Side account. You start at 9 on Work. At 11:30 Work is nearly out, so you (or Shuriken) move to Personal. Personal's clock only starts now, so it resets at 16:30. Side starts at 14:00 and resets at 19:00.

Each account was available all morning. Two of them just sat there without their clock running. By the time you need them again, they're hours from coming back.

The idea#

When an account's 5-hour window isn't running, send it one tiny request, so its clock starts.

That is all it takes, because the window starts on first use, whatever the use is. In the example, Shuriken sends Personal and Side one request each at 09:00. Their windows run from 09:00, like Work's, and all three come back at 14:00 instead of 14:00, 16:30 and 19:00. Your chats don't move to do it. Work carries on until it reaches your switch point, and then source switching moves your chats to an account whose window is already counting down.

Those times are an example, not a measurement; yours depend on how fast you work and how big your plans are. What carries over is the shape: a window that starts early comes back early.

The rules we hold to#

Our first version started clocks with your real work instead: while the account you were on still had room, it moved your next turns to an idle account. That made switching hard to follow, because a chat could change account for a reason that had nothing to do with its own limits. On 24 October 2026 we replaced it with the request. A request that starts a clock still counts, so we keep it small and rare.

• One request per window. After a request goes through, that account is left alone until its window resets. One that fails waits 10 minutes before the next try, then longer each time, up to 4 hours.
• The smallest model, nothing kept. The request is "Hi" to the smallest model, with no tools, and its short answer is thrown away. It never shows in a chat, your history or Activity. It does count toward that account's usage, like any request.
• One computer. Only the computer that holds the account's sign-in sends it, so two of your devices never start the same clock twice.
• Subscriptions only. API keys have no 5-hour window, so they're left alone.
• Your weekly limit counts. An account past its weekly switch point is skipped. Starting its clock would only spend a week you're trying to save.

And one thing it doesn't do: give you more usage. Your weekly limit is the same. 5-hour clocks change when your 5-hour windows come back, not how much is in them.

What you notice#

Most days you won't notice anything. When the account you're on runs low, the next one has been counting down since the morning, so its limit comes back sooner, and source switching moves your chats there by itself.

If you're curious, every account's 5-hour and weekly use sits side by side in Sources, and pointing at a bar shows when it resets.

Where to find it#

It's on by default. The setting is called Start unused session limits, under Sources › Switch settings, and it works whether or not automatic switching is on. Turn it off if you'd rather start each account's window yourself. The 5-hour clocks page has the full picture, and if you're already stuck, read Claude usage limit reached? What to do next.

Use only accounts you own and are entitled to use. Providers' terms may not allow sharing a subscription sign-in.

If you have more than one Claude account, their clocks should be running. Try Shuriken and they will be.