Claude's free plan explained, what Pro, Max, Ultra, Team and Enterprise cost, and which plan fits your work, from students to developers and scientists.
Is Claude free? Short answer: yes. Claude has a free plan, and it does more than most people expect. You can chat, search the web, upload files, build small interactive tools and connect your apps without paying anything or entering a card.
The catch is how much you can use it, and which tools you get. Free usage resets every five hours and runs out quickly with long documents or big tasks. Some of Claude’s best features, like Research, Claude Code and the most capable models, need a paid plan. This guide explains what every Claude plan costs, what you actually get, and which one fits the way you work, with examples for students, developers, scientists, marketers and teams.
Module 1 of The Complete Claude Guide · Plans and prices checked on 11 November 2026 · Prices in US dollars, before tax
Is Claude free? What the free plan includes
The free plan works in your browser at claude.ai, in the desktop app and in the iPhone and Android apps. You sign up with an email address or a Google account. According to Anthropic’s pricing page, the free plan includes:
- Chat with Sonnet and Haiku. Two of Claude’s models: Sonnet is the fast all-rounder, Haiku the quick helper for simple jobs.
- Web search, file uploads and code. Ask about things that happened this week and get sources, drop in a PDF or spreadsheet, and let Claude run code to analyse it.
- Artifacts, plus Claude Design, Slides and Docs. Build calculators, quizzes, documents and decks just by describing them.
- Memory and up to five projects. Claude can remember useful details across chats, and free users can create up to five projects with their own files and instructions.
- Connectors. Plug in apps like Google Drive, Gmail or Notion so Claude can work with your real files.
What the free plan doesn’t include: Research (Claude’s deep, multi-source reports), Claude Code, the Opus and Fable models, Claude in Chrome and Microsoft 365, and the agent features that let Claude take on longer tasks and run them on a schedule. Those agent features came to Pro, Max and Ultra first, and Anthropic says the free plan will follow.
And the limit? Anthropic doesn’t publish a fixed number of free messages, because usage depends on how long your messages are, how big your files are and which model you use. The free plan has “limited usage every 5 hours and every week”. In practice, a few quick questions a day fit easily. Summarising a 100-page report or working on a big task in one long chat uses it up much faster.
Claude pricing and plans at a glance
There are four plans for individuals (Free, Pro, Max and Ultra) and two for organisations (Team and Enterprise). Here’s how they compare:
| Plan | Price | How much usage | What it adds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Limited, every 5 hours and every week | Sonnet and Haiku, web search, files, artifacts, memory, up to 5 projects, connectors |
| Pro | $20/month, or $17/month billed yearly ($200 up front) | More than Free, every 5 hours and every week | Opus, Research, Claude Code, Claude in Chrome and Microsoft 365, unlimited projects, hand off and schedule tasks. Fable through usage credits |
| Max | $100/month | 5x Pro, every 5 hours and every week | Fable included (up to half your weekly limit), priority at busy times, $100 a month in API credits |
| Ultra | $200/month | 10x Pro every week, no 5-hour limit for verified accounts | Everything in Max, with $200 a month in API credits |
| Team | Standard seat $25/month ($20 billed yearly). Premium seat $125/month ($100 billed yearly) | Standard: more than Pro. Premium: 5x a Standard seat | 2 to 150 people, single sign-on, central billing and admin, Claude Code, Claude in Slack |
| Enterprise | $20 per seat per month, billed yearly, plus usage at API rates | You pay for what your team uses | Minimum 20 seats. Audit logs, SCIM, custom data retention, IP allowlisting, a HIPAA-ready option |
Sources: Claude pricing, What is the Team plan? and What is the Enterprise plan?, checked on 11 November 2026. Prices don’t include tax, and some countries see prices in their local currency.
Wait, what happened to Max 20x? In early November 2026, Anthropic renamed the Max 20x plan to Ultra. The price stayed at $200 a month, and existing subscribers moved over automatically. What used to be Max 5x is now simply Max. Older guides and cached copies of the pricing page may still show the old names.
Usage limits in short
Every plan, including the paid ones, has limits. Three things matter when you choose a plan:
- Five-hour windows. Your window starts with your first message and resets in full five hours later. Verified Ultra accounts don’t have this limit.
- A weekly limit on top. It applies across all models, and some plans have a separate weekly limit for Fable.
- One shared pool. Your limits are shared across Claude and Claude Code, so a long coding session leaves less for chat, and the other way round.
Hit the limit on a paid plan? You can wait for the reset or buy usage credits, which let Pro, Max and Ultra users keep going. They’re billed at Anthropic’s standard API rates, and you can set a monthly cap. Credits bought on or after 7 December 2026 expire 12 months after purchase.
How to check your usage, when exactly it resets and how to stop running out are all in the next lesson, Claude Usage Limits Explained (coming soon).
Which Claude plan fits? Examples by use case
Price only tells half the story. What matters is what you’ll do with Claude, and how often. These examples show where each plan makes sense:
| What you want to do | Example | Plan that fits | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Everyday questions and writing help | Fix an email, plan a trip, explain a letter from the tax office, a few times a week | Free | Light use fits comfortably in the free limit |
| Write and research every day | Draft a weekly newsletter, research competitors, turn notes into reports | Pro | More usage, Research with citations and unlimited projects |
| Study and revise | Summarise lecture notes, quiz yourself, get feedback on an essay | Free, then Pro in exam season | Check first whether your university already gives you Claude |
| Work with spreadsheets and reports | Build a financial model in Excel, check formulas, write a monthly report | Pro | Claude for Excel is included from Pro |
| Read papers and analyse data | A literature review, cleaning a dataset, running statistics in code | Pro, or Max for heavy weeks | Research, Opus and Claude Science, plus 5x the usage on Max |
| Build apps or automate tasks with code | An hour or two of Claude Code most days | Pro to start, Max if you hit limits often | Claude Code is included from Pro, and limits are shared with chat |
| Code or run agents all day | Full-time development, long agent tasks that run for hours | Ultra | 10x Pro every week and no 5-hour limit once verified |
| Share Claude with a small team | A five-person agency sharing projects and brand guides | Team, Standard seats | Shared billing, admin controls, single sign-on, and no training on your content by default |
| Roll Claude out across a company | 500 employees with security and compliance rules | Enterprise | Audit logs, SCIM, retention controls and usage-based billing |
Which plan for your role?
If you’d rather start from your job than from a task, here’s a quick guide:
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Students
Start on Free. Anthropic has no standing discount on individual plans, but many universities buy Claude’s education plan for all their members at a discounted rate, so ask your IT team before you pay. Looking at other tools too? See our best AI tools for students.
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Writers, marketers and creators
Pro. You’ll use Claude every day, and Research, unlimited projects and more usage make the difference. Free is fine for a trial month.
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Developers
Pro to try Claude Code, then Max or Ultra once it becomes part of your daily work. Building Claude into your own product? That runs on the API, billed per use. Max and Ultra include $100 and $200 a month in API credits.
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Scientists and researchers
Pro for Research, Opus and Claude Science. Move to Max if you work with large papers and datasets most days. Check your institution’s rules on data before you upload anything sensitive.
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Analysts and finance teams
Pro, for Claude in Excel and Microsoft 365. Teams that share models and templates should look at Team.
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Designers and product people
Free lets you try Claude Design, Slides and Docs. Pro gives you the usage to work with them every day. Product managers can also see how Claude fits next to other tools in our best AI tools for product managers.
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Founders and small teams
Team with Standard seats, plus Premium seats for the people who code all day. You can mix seat types.
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IT and large organisations
Enterprise, for single sign-on, SCIM, audit logs and data retention controls. You pay a seat fee plus what people actually use.
Free vs Pro: is it worth paying for Claude?
Stay on the free plan if Claude is something you use a few times a week and you rarely see the limit message. Upgrade to Pro when one of these sounds familiar:
- You hit the limit most days, often in the middle of something.
- You want Research reports with citations instead of quick web searches.
- You want to try Claude Code or let Claude work in Chrome or Excel.
- You need more than five projects, or a stronger model like Opus for hard problems.
A good test: use the free plan for two weeks for real work. If the limit got in your way more than twice, Pro will pay for itself in time saved. If it didn’t, the answer to “is Claude free?” is simply yes, for you.
Pro vs Max vs Ultra
All three include the same core features. The difference is how much you can use, and how much Fable you get.
- Pro ($20) suits daily use with the odd heavy session. Fable is available, but paid with usage credits.
- Max ($100) gives you 5x Pro’s usage, Fable within your plan (up to half your weekly limit) and priority access when Claude is busy. Pick it if you hit Pro’s limit several times a week.
- Ultra ($200) gives you 10x Pro’s usage every week and drops the 5-hour limit for verified accounts. It’s built for people who work with Claude Code or agents for hours at a stretch.
Only hitting the limit now and then? Usage credits on Pro can be cheaper than upgrading. Hitting it every day? The bigger plan is usually the better deal.
Team and Enterprise in short
Team is for groups of 2 to 150 people. You choose Standard or Premium seats per person and can mix them. Admins get single sign-on, central billing and controls over connectors, and Claude works in Slack through Claude Tag, which is only available on Team and Enterprise. Anthropic doesn’t train its models on content from business plans by default.
Enterprise works differently: a seat fee of $20 a month per person (billed yearly, from 20 seats), plus everything your team uses in chat, Claude Code or Cowork, billed at API rates. In return you get the controls large organisations need, such as audit logs, SCIM, IP allowlisting and custom data retention.
Ways to pay less for Claude
- Pay yearly for Pro. It’s $17 a month instead of $20. Max and Ultra are billed monthly.
- Start free and upgrade when you feel the limit. There’s no reason to pay for a plan you don’t use.
- Ask about education and nonprofit pricing. Universities can get discounted campus-wide access, and nonprofits can get discounted Team and Enterprise plans.
- Use the right model for the job. Haiku and Sonnet stretch your limit much further than Opus or Fable.
- Developers: compare with the API. For a small script or app, pay-as-you-go API pricing can cost less than a subscription. Sonnet 5.5 costs $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens.
A word on privacy
On Free, Pro, Max and Ultra, you choose whether your chats and coding sessions help improve Claude. You can change it any time under Settings, then Privacy. If you allow it, Anthropic keeps that data for up to five years; if you don’t, the standard retention is 30 days. Incognito chats are never used for training. On Team and Enterprise, your content isn’t used for training by default.
FAQ
Is Claude free?
Yes. Claude’s free plan includes chat with Sonnet and Haiku, web search, file uploads, artifacts, memory, up to five projects and connectors, with usage that resets every five hours. You don’t need a credit card to sign up.
Is Claude Code free?
No. Claude Code is included from the Pro plan ($20 a month) and in Max, Ultra, Team and Enterprise, or you can pay per use through the API. The tool can also be pointed at open models through Ollama, but then you’re not using Claude’s own models. New to it? Start with our guide on how to use Claude Code.
Is there a Claude student discount?
Not on individual plans. Many universities offer Claude to all students and staff through Anthropic’s education plan, so check with your university first. Otherwise, the free plan covers most study tasks.
Does the Claude app cost money?
The apps are free to download and use with a free account. Your plan works the same on web, desktop and mobile. If you subscribe inside the iPhone or Android app, the price can differ from the web price.
How much is Claude Pro?
$20 a month, or $17 a month if you pay $200 for the year. Tax is added on top in most regions.
Can I use Fable on the free plan?
No. Fable models are available on all paid plans. On Pro they’re paid with usage credits; Max and Ultra include them up to half your weekly limit.
What’s next
Next lesson: Claude Usage Limits Explained. How to check your usage, when your limits reset and how to make them last longer on any plan.
New here? Start with How to Use Claude, Lesson 1 of The Complete Claude Guide, a free course from first chat to building your own agents.
Official sources: Claude pricing · What is the Pro plan? · What is the Max plan? · The Ultra plan · How usage limits work · Usage credits · Change your privacy settings
