Methodology
How every number on LimitSheet is sourced, labeled, checked and kept current.
Last reviewed AI-assisted review
In short
- Every value comes from a named source and carries the source’s exact words.
- Each value is checked against its source before it counts as verified: first with an AI-assisted exact-quote check, signed off on behalf of Lokesh Rathore, who delegated it and is responsible for it, then by hand; every record says which.
- Rupee prices come only from a real checkout, and every change states its baseline.
Scope
LimitSheet tracks subscription plans for AI coding tools: what each plan costs, what it allows (usage windows, weekly caps, credits, multipliers, reset rules) and when that changed. It does not track pay-per-token API prices.
Tier A, checked every week: Claude, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot.
A page is opened to search engines only when all of these hold: it shows at least 5 sourced values, every value on it has been verified, no other single page shows the same records together, it adds something first-hand or archival (a checkout-verified rupee price, a measurement, or an Internet Archive copy of a source for a change it shows), and its scheduled release date has come. New pages are released a few at a time. Until then a page stays hidden from search engines, and a page with unchecked values is also marked as a draft.
Records and labels
Each value is a record with the plan, the field (for example the monthly price or the weekly cap), the value and unit, the source, the source's exact words, a status label, and who verified it and when. The status label says how strong the evidence is:
| Label | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Official | Stated by the vendor on its own pricing page, docs or help center. |
| Reported | Reported by the vendor elsewhere (blog, staff post) or by reputable press. |
| Community | Reported by users; not confirmed by the vendor. |
| Measured | Measured by LimitSheet (test run or real checkout). |
| Unknown | Not published by the vendor. |
Wording follows the label. Below Official we write “users report…” or “the vendor's blog says…”, never “the limit is…”. Where a vendor gives a range or a multiplier, we show exactly that range or multiplier, not a single number. “Unknown” means the vendor does not publish the value; it is never left blank.
Source hierarchy
- The vendor's own pricing pages, documentation and help center.
- The vendor's changelog and release notes.
- Posts by vendor staff (saved with an archived copy).
- Reputable press that names its source.
- Community reports, only when several independent users report the same thing, and labeled as such.
- Our own measurements, with the method and client version stated.
AI search summaries and SEO blogs are never sources.
Detecting changes
Our scripts re-read only sources that allow automated access, such as GitHub's pages and press articles, and flag a quote that is no longer on the page. Sites whose terms do not allow automated access (Anthropic, Cursor and OpenAI) are never requested by our scripts. They are checked in the weekly sweep, by a person in a browser or through an Internet Archive copy. When no recent copy exists, our script asks the Internet Archive to save one (Save Page Now); the Internet Archive's own crawler then fetches the page, and our script reads only the saved copy.
Update tiers
- Tier A (the main tools): a detected change is published within 48 hours, aiming for 24, weekends included. Every value is re-checked weekly.
- Tier B: a detected change is published within 7 days. Values are re-checked monthly.
- Reported errors: acknowledged within 24 hours and fixed within 72 hours. See corrections.
How we verify
Every value goes through the same steps:
- It is stored with the exact words of its source. Nothing is estimated or paraphrased into a number.
- First check, AI-assisted (exact quote): two independent AI reviews (a checker and an adversary, run separately but both with Claude) each read the saved copy of the source (a direct copy where the site allows automated access, otherwise an Internet Archive copy) and confirm that the recorded words appear in it word for word, ignoring spacing, and that the recorded value matches them; a script also confirms that the quoted words are on that saved copy. For a current price or limit the copy must be recent (captured no more than three days before the check); a change entry may be checked against a copy of the dated article it cites. Anthropic, Cursor and OpenAI do not allow automated access to their sites, so for those the checks read only the Internet Archive copy, never the site itself. A value is signed off only when both reviews agree, under a standing delegation from the editor, Lokesh Rathore, who is responsible for it. The record then stores the date, the editor's name and the method “AI-assisted”, and its row in each table is labelled “AI-assisted check”.
- Hand check (later): the editor and his team then re-check each value by hand, opening the source itself and comparing the value, unit, currency, tax treatment and billing period. A value checked this way is shown as “Checked by hand” in the page's date line (its record stores the method “manual” with the date of the hand check), and the “AI-assisted check” label goes away. Until a value has had this hand check, it keeps the “AI-assisted check” label.
- The date, the name and the method are stored with every record and included in the data downloads. Tables show the date of each row's check and, for AI-assisted checks, that label.
Every table has a Verified column with the date of the oldest check in that row. How old a check may be depends on the tool's update tier. Tier A: up to 7 days is recent, up to 9 days is aging, and anything older is marked “May be outdated”. Tier B: up to 30 days is recent, up to 35 days is aging, and anything older is marked “May be outdated”. When a Tier-A value on a page is past that limit, the whole page carries a “May be outdated” notice until it is checked again. Unchecked values say “Pending verification”, and the whole page is marked as a draft and hidden from search engines. Each page shows one date: the latest verification of anything on it.
Rupee prices
A price in rupees is published only when a person saw that amount at a real checkout, with the tax treatment and billing period the checkout showed. A rupee price from a vendor's page or a press report is recorded, but its amount is not shown anywhere on the site, change entries and data downloads included, until a checkout confirms it; tables say “Recorded, pending checkout” instead. We never convert dollars to rupees: exchange rates, card fees and taxes make a converted number a guess, not a price. Details are on the India page.
Change math and baselines
A change is always stated against a named baseline, because the same change can be a cut against one level and a rise against another. When a vendor ends a temporary boost and keeps part of it, for example, the new level can be below the promotional level and above the original one at the same time. Entries show both, with the arithmetic: the new level divided by the baseline, minus one. We write “reduced” or “raised”, never loaded words. Every number and date in an entry is quoted from its sources, and the entry page shows those exact words under each source. Each entry records when the vendor announced the change, when it took effect (where a source says), and when LimitSheet recorded and published it.
Window tests
Measured values will come from a published test protocol: fixed tasks on a public sample repository, run by a person in the vendor's own interactive client, with the client version, model and time recorded. We will publish the protocol before the first result. We never script access to consumer plans, and results from different versions are never mixed.
Limitations
- Vendors change pages without notice. A value can be outdated between checks; the Verified column shows how old each check is.
- Usage meters inside the tools are approximate, so measured values carry that uncertainty.
- Some vendors publish no numbers for their limits. We say so instead of guessing.
- Rupee prices can differ by payment method or account; ours are the amounts one checkout showed.
AI use
Drafts and code are assisted by AI tools, including Claude Code. AI never invents a number, quote, date or test result: every value is copied from a named source together with its exact words. Values are first checked with the AI-assisted exact-quote check described above and signed off on behalf of Lokesh Rathore, who delegated it and is editorially responsible for the site; he and his team then re-check them by hand. Each record states which check it has had. The trust pages, this one included, are marked “AI-assisted review” at the top when their last review was AI-assisted.
License and citation
LimitSheet's own compilation and notes are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (downloads); quoted source text stays with its publishers. Pricing, limits, compare and change pages have a “Cite this” box with the page title, its verification date and its address; table rows have stable links and their own “Cite” link, so you can cite a single plan.
Changes to this method
The method was first published on . : the description of the first check was made more precise. It is two independent AI reviews (a checker and an adversary) plus a script that confirms the quoted words are on the saved copy; before, it said “two independent automated checks”. Future changes will be listed here with their dates.