Claude review

What Claude is

Claude is the AI assistant built by Anthropic. It’s available on the web at claude.ai, as desktop apps and on iOS and Android, and through extensions like Claude in Chrome and Claude for Microsoft 365 and Outlook. Under the hood it uses Anthropic’s model family (Opus, Sonnet and Haiku, plus newer models listed on its pricing page), with context windows of up to 1M tokens depending on the model.

Claude has grown from a chatbot into a workspace: you can hand off and schedule tasks, create documents, slides and dashboards, connect your tools and, on paid plans, run Claude Code for software work. Anthropic recently merged its Cowork experience into the main Claude app for Pro and Max users.

Key features

Chat, Projects and Artifacts

Organize work into Projects with shared files and instructions (free users get up to 5). Artifacts turn outputs such as code, documents and interactive apps into a side panel you can preview, edit and share.

Research, search and memory

Search the web, run deeper Research tasks and let Claude remember context across conversations.

Connectors and Skills

Connect apps and tools so Claude can read and act on your data, and use Skills to package repeatable workflows.

Create files

Claude Design, Slides and Docs produce real files; code execution lets it analyze spreadsheets and build charts.

Claude Code

Anthropic’s agentic coding tool, included with Pro and Max, works in your terminal, IDE, Slack or the web. See our Claude Code review.

Pricing breakdown

US web prices, checked October 16, 2026 (excluding tax). Mobile pricing may vary by app store.

Plan	Price	Highlights
Free	$0	Chat on all platforms, web search, files and code, memory, connectors, Artifacts
Pro	$17/mo billed annually ($200) or $20 monthly	More usage, task handoff and scheduling, Claude Code, Projects, more models, Chrome and Microsoft 365
Max 5x	$100/mo	5x Pro usage, higher output limits, priority access, $100/mo API credits
Max 20x	$200/mo	20x Pro usage, everything in Max 5x, $200/mo API credits
Team	Per seat	2–150 people, central billing and admin
Enterprise	Custom	SSO, SCIM, audit logs, compliance API, HIPAA-ready offering

Usage limits apply on every plan, and Anthropic notes prices and plans can change.

Best use cases

• Long documents: upload a 100-page contract and ask for obligations, deadlines and risks in a table.
• Writing: draft a blog post from your notes, then ask Claude to match the tone of a previous article.
• Analysis: upload a CSV of sales and have Claude build charts and summarize trends.
• Coding: use Claude Code to fix a bug or write tests in your repository.

How to get started

1. Sign up free at claude.ai or download the desktop or mobile app.
2. Create a Project for an ongoing task and add reference files and instructions.
3. Ask for a concrete deliverable, such as a memo, table or slide outline.
4. Use Artifacts to preview and refine documents or small apps.
5. Turn on connectors for tools you use, such as email or docs.
6. Upgrade to Pro if you hit limits or want Claude Code.

Tips and tricks

• Put instructions in the Project, so you don’t repeat them every chat.
• Ask Claude to think through options before recommending one.
• Paste examples of the style you want; Claude imitates format well.
• Watch your usage during long sessions and start fresh chats for new topics to save limits.

Example prompts:

Here’s my draft newsletter. Keep my voice, cut it by 30%, make the opening line stronger and list the three changes you made and why.

Analyze the attached survey CSV. Identify the top five themes in open-ended answers with counts and one representative quote each.

Pros and cons

👍 Pros

• Excellent writing and reasoning quality
• Large context window for long documents
• Claude Code included with Pro
• Free plan includes memory, file creation and Artifacts
• Model-training opt-out on every plan

👎 Cons

• Usage limits can interrupt heavy sessions on Pro
• Max is expensive for occasional users
• Mobile pricing may differ from web pricing
• Fewer consumer extras such as video generation than some rivals

Who should (and shouldn't) use Claude

✅ A good fit if you…

• Write, edit or analyze long documents regularly
• Want an AI pair programmer plus a chat assistant in one plan
• Value careful answers and clear reasoning

⛔ Look elsewhere if you…

• Need image or video generation (consider ChatGPT or Gemini)
• Want unlimited heavy usage on a $20 budget
• Need a search engine first (consider Perplexity)

Claude alternatives

• ChatGPT — OpenAI's AI assistant for chat, research, writing, coding, images, voice and agentic work. (from $8/mo (Go); Plus $20; Pro $100–$500)
• Google Gemini — Google's AI assistant for chat, research, image and video generation, built into Gmail, Docs and Android. (from $4.99/mo (Google AI Plus))
• Perplexity — AI answer engine with cited sources, Deep Research, the Comet browser and Perplexity Computer. (from $17/mo billed annually (Pro))
• Grok — xAI's AI assistant for chat, real-time answers and image and video creation, sold through The X Subscription. (from $8/mo (Plus) or $80/yr)
• DeepSeek — Chinese AI lab offering a free chat assistant and some of the lowest-cost frontier-class API models. (from Free chat; API from $0.15 per 1M input tokens (off-peak, cache miss))

FAQ

Is Claude free?

Yes. Claude's free plan lets you chat on web, desktop and mobile, search the web, create files and run code, use memory, connect apps and create Artifacts, with usage limits.

How much does Claude Pro cost?

Claude Pro is $20 per month billed monthly, or $17 per month with the annual discount ($200 billed up front). Prices exclude tax.

What is Claude Max?

Max is for heavy users: Max 5x costs $100 per month and Max 20x costs $200, giving 5x or 20x Pro's usage, higher output limits, priority access and $100 or $200 a month in API credits.

Is Claude Code included with Claude Pro?

Yes. Claude Code is included in Pro and Max plans. Anthropic describes Pro as suited to short coding sprints in small codebases and Max for larger codebases.

Does Anthropic train on my Claude chats?

Anthropic's pricing page lists model training as opt-out on Free, Pro and Max plans, so you can turn it off in your settings.

Does Claude have a team plan?

Yes. The Team plan covers 2 to 150 people with central billing, admin controls and more usage than Pro per standard seat. Enterprise adds SSO, SCIM, audit logs and compliance features.

Sources

This is an editorial review based on research of official Claude pages and documentation, not hands-on benchmark testing. Prices are in USD and were checked on October 16, 2026; vendors change plans often, so confirm on the official pricing page before buying.

1. Claude pricing (Free, Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise)
2. What is the Max plan? (Claude Help Center)