Claude is Anthropic's AI assistant, built for conversation, writing, research, and software development. It's available at claude.ai on web, desktop, and mobile, and includes Claude Code for programming and Claude Cowork for coordinating multi-step work. It fits solo professionals who want a careful writing and thinking partner as well as engineering teams that need a capable coding agent.
What does Claude do?
Claude answers questions, drafts and edits documents, analyzes uploaded files, and can search the web for current information inside a conversation. It's built to hold longer, more structured conversations and to explain its reasoning, which makes it popular for research, legal, and technical writing tasks.
Paid plans extend Claude well past chat. Claude Code turns Claude into a terminal-based coding agent that can read a codebase, write and test changes, and help open a pull request. Claude Cowork lets Claude work across connected tools like Slack and Google Workspace to complete multi-step tasks with less manual handoff.
Core features
- Conversational chat with extended thinking for working through complex, multi-step problems.
- Claude Code, a coding agent that can read, write, test, and refactor code across an entire project.
- Claude Cowork, which connects Claude to tools like Slack and Google Workspace to complete tasks that span multiple apps.
- Web search built into chat for answers that reflect current information.
- Projects, which group related chats and documents so Claude keeps context across a body of work.
- File upload and analysis for PDFs, spreadsheets, and images.
- Memory across conversations so Claude can recall earlier context without repeating it.
- Connectors and remote MCP support for linking Claude to internal tools and data sources.
Use cases
Writers, researchers, and consultants use Claude to draft and revise long documents, summarize reports, and think through arguments, since it tends to hold nuance well across a long conversation.
Engineering and product teams use Claude for:
- Reviewing and refactoring code with Claude Code
- Automating repetitive cross-app tasks with Claude Cowork
- Onboarding new team members to a codebase or process
- Drafting technical documentation and specs
Pricing
Claude has a free plan, then paid Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise tiers. Pro runs $20 a month billed monthly or $17 a month billed annually, and includes Claude Code, Claude Cowork, and access to more Claude models. Max plans start at $100 a month for 5x or 20x more usage than Pro.
Team plans charge $20 to $25 per seat a month for standard seats and $100 to $125 for premium seats, while Enterprise pricing is seat-based plus usage costs and requires talking to Anthropic's sales team.
How to use Claude
- Go to claude.ai and create an account with an email address or Google account.
- Start a new chat and describe the task or question in plain language.
- Upload a document, spreadsheet, or image if you want Claude to work from it directly.
- Turn on web search when the answer depends on current information.
- Install Claude Code from the terminal if you want Claude working directly inside a codebase.
- Upgrade to Pro, Max, or Team when you need more usage, more models, or shared billing for a group.
Frequently asked questions
Is Claude free to use?
Yes. The free plan gives access to Claude's chat, file uploads, and web search with usage limits that reset regularly. Paid plans raise those limits and add tools like Claude Code.
What is Claude Code?
Claude Code is Anthropic's coding agent, included in every paid plan. It runs in a terminal or IDE and can read a project, make code changes, run tests, and help ship a pull request.
How is Claude Max different from Pro?
Max includes everything in Pro plus 5x or 20x more usage per session, higher output limits, and priority access during busy periods. It's built for people who work with Claude for extended stretches during the day.
Can teams share a Claude plan?
Yes. The Team plan supports 2 to 150 seats with central billing, admin controls, and single sign-on, and Enterprise extends that with stricter security and compliance features for larger organizations.
Claude is available directly at claude.ai on web, desktop, and mobile.