Ask HN: Is Claude Getting Worse?

This is especially frustrating because Sonnet 4.6 was a real step up: it could produce long, correct code in one pass much more often. That seems basically gone now.

As a paying Pro user, I honestly find myself using free alternatives like DeepSeek and Z.ai (GLM) more than Claude lately. I’ve also stopped touching Opus entirely—it’s so token-hungry that it drains my weekly quota too fast to be practical.

Is Anthropic trying to limit usage or drive people away?

I downgraded from Max to Pro this month and will cancel my subscription next month. I would suggest others who feel similarly do the same. The only way to signal to to these companies that this model enshittification cycle is unacceptable is to vote with your feet.

A few weeks ago, its performance was impressive and helpful.

In the last week, it has been unusable. It is now getting confused, suggests architecture changes that make absolutely no sense, and has even started ignoring my stop hooks (and then arguing with me that they "aren't necessary").

They are most likely attempting to become profitable.

AI company's have consumed eye watering amounts of venture capital that they are increasingly under pressure to justify. In order to do this, they will have to either increase rates or degrade performance or both.

A lot of people don't seem to grasp the epic proportions of what is taking place here. Consultants at Bain & Co. estimated that justifying current AI spending will require $2 trillion in annual AI revenue by 2030.

By comparison, this is more than the combined revenue of Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta and Nvidia, and more than five times the size of the entire global subscription software market.

For most companies, this means that AI will have to become their primary technology expense, far exceeding their current budgets.