Claude

What is Claude?

Claude is Anthropic's assistant on web, desktop, and mobile, with the same usage pool shared by Claude Code in the terminal. The September 2026 consumer lineup is Free ($0), Pro at $20/month or $17/month if you pay $200 a year up front, and Max from $100/month for 5× or 20× Pro's usage.

Paid plans add Claude Code, Claude Design/Slides/Docs, Research, and Claude in Chrome and Microsoft 365. Current models on the API side include Fable 5.1, Opus 5, Sonnet 5, and Haiku 4.5, with context windows advertised up to 1 million tokens depending on the model.

Team (2–150 seats) and Enterprise ($20/seat/month plus API-rate usage, billed annually) sit on top for shared workspaces. Claude is still the assistant people pick when the document is long and the writing has to stay careful — not when they want the biggest plugin store.

A concrete walkthrough: review a pull request with Claude Code

Open the repo in your terminal, start Claude Code (paid plans only — it is not on Free), and point it at the branch. Ask it to summarize the diff, list regressions, and draft a review comment you can paste into GitHub.

Chat and Claude Code share one usage pool that resets every five hours, so a long review plus a long chat in the same window will burn Pro faster than either task alone. Max (5× or 20× Pro) is the upgrade if this is an all-day habit.

If you want inline completions inside the editor instead of an agent in the terminal, GitHub Copilot or Cursor is the more natural fit.

Key features

• Context windows up to 1M tokens (varies by model) — enough for a large repo or a book-length PDF
• Claude Code included on every paid plan, drawing from the same 5-hour usage pool as chat
• Artifacts for live preview of generated code, docs, and diagrams
• Claude Design, Slides, and Docs on Pro and above
• Web search, file creation, code execution, voice, and memory on Free as well as paid
• Projects: up to 5 on Free, unlimited on paid; sharing only on Team/Enterprise
• Usage resets on a rolling 5-hour window; paid plans also have weekly caps

How to get started

1. Sign up at claude.ai — Free is enough to try chat, Artifacts, and web search
2. Create a Project and upload the files the task depends on, or start a plain chat
3. Ask Claude to draft, review, or reason through the work; use Artifacts to iterate on code or a doc
4. Install Claude Code on a paid plan if the daily loop is in the terminal
5. If you hit the 5-hour cap on Pro, wait it out, turn on usage credits, or move to Max

Claude pricing

Consumer prices from Anthropic's pricing page, September 2026: Free is $0; Pro is $20/month or $17/month on annual ($200 billed up front); Max starts at $100/month for 5× Pro usage (a 20× option is listed as well). Team is for 2–150 people.

Enterprise is $20 per seat per month plus usage at API rates, billed annually. Claude Code is included on all paid plans and shares the chat allowance.

Our take: Pro is the first plan that includes Claude Code and is the right default for daily writing or coding. Buy Max only after Pro's 5-hour window regularly cuts you off. Enterprise's $20/seat plus API-rate usage can get expensive if the team leans on Opus or Fable.

Prices verified 2026-09. Plans change often — confirm on the official site above before you buy.

Use cases

• Reviewing and refactoring a large codebase with Claude Code
• Long-document analysis, contracts, and research synthesis
• Careful, structured business writing with tone control
• Slide and doc drafts via Claude Design / Slides / Docs on Pro+
• Chrome and Microsoft 365 side-panel help on paid plans

Strengths and tradeoffs

Claude alternatives

• ChatGPT: ChatGPT has a much larger plugin and app-integration ecosystem, plus voice mode and image generation built in.
• Gemini: Gemini is the better default if you're already living in Google Workspace, with tighter Docs and Gmail integration.
• Grok: Grok leans more casual and current-events aware, with direct access to real-time posts on X.
• Perplexity: Perplexity is built search-first, with inline citations on every answer instead of open-ended conversation.
• DeepSeek: DeepSeek is open-weight and far cheaper to run at scale via API, at some cost to polish and safety tuning.
• Meta AI: Meta AI is free and built into Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook, useful if you want AI inside apps you already use daily.

Pick Claude when the job is a long document, a careful rewrite, or an agent in the terminal. Pick ChatGPT when you also need images, voice-with-video, or a large custom-GPT library.

Pick Gemini if the files already live in Drive. For search-with-citations as the default, Perplexity is still the more honest starting point.

FAQ

Is Claude free to use?

Claude's plans: Free tier, plus Pro/Max and Team/Enterprise. Pricing and free-tier limits change over time, so check the official site above for the latest details.

What is Claude used for?

Anthropic's long-context assistant for writing, research, and Claude Code in the terminal.

Who is Claude best for?

Claude is a good fit for reviewing and refactoring a large codebase with Claude Code, or long-document analysis, contracts, and research synthesis.

What are the alternatives to Claude?

Commonly compared alternatives include ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok, see the comparison above for how they differ.

How much does Claude cost?

Claude is free to start. Pro is $20 a month, or $17 a month if you pay $200 for the year. Max starts at $100 a month for 5× Pro usage. Enterprise is $20 per seat per month plus usage billed at API rates. Developers who only want the API pay per million tokens (for example Sonnet 5 at $2 input / $10 output).

What's the best Claude alternative?

ChatGPT is the most commonly recommended swap: chatGPT has a much larger plugin and app-integration ecosystem, plus voice mode and image generation built in. Which one is actually best depends on which of those tradeoffs matters more for what you're doing.

Is Claude Code included with Pro, or do I pay extra?

Claude Code is included on every paid plan (Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise) and is not on Free. It shares the same 5-hour usage pool as chat on that plan. Heavy coding sessions can add pay-as-you-go API credits through a Console account.

How is Claude Max different from Pro?

Max includes everything in Pro plus 5× or 20× Pro's usage per 5-hour session, higher output limits, priority access at peak times, and earlier access to some features. Anthropic lists Max from $100/month. Both Max options are billed monthly, not annually.