AI assistant for writing, long documents, coding and analysis, with a free plan.

Company: Anthropic
Best for: Long documents, writing, coding and projects that use your own files
Free plan: Yes. Chat, web search, file creation, memory and Artifacts, with usage limits
Starting price: Free. Pro $17/month billed annually ($20 monthly), Max from $100/month (US prices)
Details checked: 28 October 2026

Claude is Anthropic’s AI assistant. You chat with it on the web, desktop or mobile, give it documents to read, and ask it to write, analyse or code.

This page summarises what Anthropic says on its official pricing page, plus our own tips for getting better answers. Plans and limits change often, so confirm details on the official site before you buy.

Live numbers

Referral share: 1.0% Steady
Public interest (28 days): 172,997 views Steady

Updated 28 October 2026, 15:38. See the full dashboard.

Standout features

Free plan includes web search, creating files, running code, memory and Artifacts
Claude Code is included in all paid plans and shares your plan usage
Projects to keep chats and documents together (up to 5 on Free)
Context window up to 1 million tokens, depending on the model
Connectors to link your apps and tools
Claude in Chrome and Claude for Microsoft 365 on paid plans
Claude Design, Slides and Docs for creating documents and presentations

Best uses

Reading and summarising long documents and contracts
Drafting and editing reports, emails and web copy
Coding help and larger coding tasks with Claude Code
Analysing spreadsheets and data files
Building small tools and documents with Artifacts

Pros

A free plan with web search, file creation and memory
Claude Code is included in paid plans, so one subscription covers chat and coding
Clear plan ladder from Pro to Max, with 5x or 20x more usage
Team plan does not train on your content by default
Works on web, desktop, iOS and Android

Cons

Usage limits reset every five hours and paid plans also have weekly limits, so there is no fixed message count
Opus is not on the free plan, and Research is paid only
On individual plans model training is an opt-out setting
Max starts at $100 a month
Prices are US dollars and exclude tax. UK prices and VAT may differ

How to use Claude

Go to claude.com (or claude.ai) or install the Claude app on iOS, Android or desktop.
Create a free account.
Start a chat and describe the task, who it is for and the length you want.
Attach files such as PDFs, spreadsheets or images when you need it to work from your own material.
Turn on web search when you need current information, and check the sources it gives.
Use Projects to keep related chats and documents in one place.
Try Artifacts for documents, tables or small apps you want to keep editing.
If you code, look at Claude Code on a paid plan. Check anything important against an official source.

Prompts that work well

Paste the source and set the rule

Using only the text below, summarise the key points for a busy business owner in five bullets. If something is not in the text, say so. [paste text]

Ask questions first

Before you write anything, ask me up to three questions that would make your answer better.

Match a tone

Rewrite this email in the same tone as the sample below. Sample: [paste]. Email: [paste].

Split a big job into steps

Step 1: list the sections of a UK GDPR checklist for a small business website. Wait for my OK, then write each section.

Ask for a critique

Review my draft as a sceptical customer. List the three weakest points and suggest a fix for each.

Debug with context

I am attaching my script. Explain what it does, then suggest the smallest change that fixes the error message below. [paste error]

Pricing

Plan	Price	What you get
Free	$0	Chat on web, desktop and mobile, web search, create files and run code, memory, Artifacts and up to 5 projects. Sonnet and Haiku models. Usage limits apply.
Pro	$17 / month billed annually ($200 up front), $20 billed monthly	Everything in Free with more usage, Claude Code, Research, Projects, more models including Opus, and Claude in Chrome and Microsoft 365.
Max	From $100 / month	Choose 5x or 20x the usage of Pro, higher output limits, priority access at busy times and $100 to $200 a month in API credits.
Team	$20 per seat / month billed annually ($25 monthly)	For teams of 2 to 150. Premium seats are $100 per month billed annually ($125 monthly) with 5x more usage. Central billing and admin, SSO, and no model training on your content by default.
Enterprise	$20 per seat / month billed annually, 20 seat minimum, plus usage at API rates	Everything in Team plus SCIM, audit logs, custom data retention, role-based access and a HIPAA-ready offering.

Prices change often. Always confirm on the official site. We last checked on 28 October 2026.

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