Ask HN: How did the industry settle on weekly limits?

I understand that the cheap compute ride wouldn't last forever but something that feels somewhat unique seems to have come about from all of this AI belt tightening.

Weekly Limits

This policy seemed to come from almost nowhere but was quickly adopted across many products. Cutting off access for 25% of the time based product you've paid for feels like it is just incompatible with a subscription at the core conceptual level. Cooldown times and over-use back-offs are nothing new but there is a drastic difference in tone from 5 hours to 5-7 days.

I'm at a loss to see how this became an acceptable practice with the most common answer being "Buy more subs"

3 points | by saratogacx 2 hours ago

3 comments

  • tkiolp4 53 minutes ago
    Just cancel your subscription.
  • dbeyzade 37 minutes ago
    "Weekly caps feel like a psychological nudge toward higher tiers rather than a genuine resource constraint. The industry collectively normalized it because it works."
  • bigyabai 2 hours ago
    You can still buy tokens direct from the API. The subscription model is not much more than a glorified paid trial.