Last updated: 2026-11-02
What changed
Claude is Anthropic's AI assistant across web, desktop, mobile, API and Claude Code. Model access is gated by plan: Free gets Sonnet and Haiku, Pro adds Opus, and Fable is included from Max. Ultra, the top personal plan, offers ten times Pro's weekly allowance and lifts the five-hour cap once an account is verified.
About Claude
Claude is Anthropic's AI assistant, sold as a chat app on web, desktop and mobile, as a developer API, and through the Claude Code coding agent. Anthropic, founded in 2021 by Dario and Daniela Amodei and listed on Hokai as Anthropic, runs four model families: Fable, Opus, Sonnet and Haiku. Which of them you can open depends on the plan, and that is the real buying decision.
On Anthropic's pricing page the Free plan gives Sonnet and Haiku, with no Opus and no Fable. Pro adds Opus, Claude Code, Claude Science and Research, and lets you pay for Fable with usage credits. Max raises the Pro allowance fivefold and includes Fable within half the weekly limit. Ultra, which replaced the old top Max level, drops the five-hour window for verified accounts and gives ten times the Pro weekly allowance. Both Max and Ultra now come with monthly API credits for building on the Claude Platform. Team seats come in Standard and Premium sizes for groups of two to 150 people, and Enterprise bills a per-seat fee plus usage at API rates.
In September Anthropic merged Cowork into the main app, so a quick question and a long hand-off task now start in the same conversation and can keep running after you close the laptop. Claude Docs and Claude Slides arrived at the same time, and Claude Design works inside chats. The merged app reached Enterprise customers on 23 October. The desktop app runs on macOS and Windows, and the web app, desktop, mobile and Claude Code all draw from one usage pool. Anthropic's newer Claude Duet agent is listed separately.
For developers, Sonnet and Haiku are the working models, and their per-token prices are listed on the Anthropic API service page. The app suits long documents, code review and multi-step agent work better than generated media: Claude reads images but does not draw them.
Who should look elsewhere? Anyone whose main need is image or video generation will find it built into ChatGPT, which Claude lacks. A team that lives in Google Docs and Gmail gets a smoother fit from Gemini. People who spend the day inside an editor may prefer inline suggestions, which is what Cursor offers. Teams already paying for GitHub can compare GitHub Copilot too. Research that needs a citation on every line goes to Perplexity, built for exactly that job. Not sure which fits? Answer a few questions in Smart Match and get a shortlist matched to your use.
Pricing
Free: $0, Sonnet and Haiku only. Pro: $20 monthly or $17 a month billed annually ($200 up front). Max: $100 a month and Ultra: $200 a month, both billed monthly only; Max includes $100 and Ultra $200 a month in Claude Platform API credits.
Team Standard: $25 monthly or $20 annual per seat; Team Premium: $125 monthly or $100 annual per seat; Team is for 2 to 150 people and includes up to $500 a month in pooled API credits. Enterprise: $20 per seat per month billed annually with a 20-seat minimum, plus usage at API rates. Paid plans can buy usage credits once a limit is reached.
Prices exclude tax and come from claude.com/pricing as read on 2 November 2026. Developer token rates are listed on Anthropic's service record.
| Tier | Monthly price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | Chat on web, desktop and mobile, web search, file creation, code execution, memory, connectors, Artifacts, Claude Design, Slides and Docs, up to 5 Projects |
| Pro | $20/mo | $17 a month on annual billing. Everything in Free plus more usage, Claude Code, Claude Science, Research, task hand-off and scheduling, Dashboards (beta), Claude in Chrome and Microsoft 365 |
| Enterprise | $20/mo | Annual seat fee for at least 20 seats, with API-rate usage on top; spend limits, role-based access, SCIM and audit logs |
| Team Standard | $25/mo | $20 per seat on annual billing; teams of 2 to 150; Claude Code and Cowork, Claude Tag, Motion and Dashboards (beta), SSO, no training on your content by default, and a shared pool of API credits |
| Max | $100/mo | Monthly billing. Everything in Pro with 5x Pro usage per 5 hours and per week, Fable up to half the weekly limit, $100 a month in Claude Platform API credits, priority access |
| Team Premium | $125/mo | $100 per seat on annual billing; everything in Team Standard with 5x the usage of a standard seat |
| Ultra | $200/mo | Monthly billing. Everything in Max with no 5-hour limit for verified accounts, 10x Pro usage each week and $200 a month in API credits |
Feature Comparison by Tier
| Feature | Free | Pro | Max | Ultra | Team Standard | Team Premium |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price / month | $0 | $20 | $100 | $200 | $25/seat | $125/seat |
| Price / month, annual billing | n/a | $17 | Monthly only | Monthly only | $20/seat | $100/seat |
| Usage vs Pro | Limited | 1x | 5x | 10x weekly, no 5-hour limit | More than Pro | 5x a standard seat |
| Opus models | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Fable models | — | Usage credits | Up to 50% of weekly limits | Up to 50% of weekly limits | Not stated | Not stated |
| Monthly API credits | — | — | $100 | $200 | Pooled, up to $500 | Pooled, up to $500 |
| Claude Code included | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Claude Tag and Motion | — | — | — | — | ✓ | ✓ |
Key Features
- Four model tiers: Fable 5.1, Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5.5 and Haiku 5.5 are all in the lineup; Free opens Sonnet and Haiku, Pro adds Opus, and Max and Ultra include Fable up to half of the weekly limit.
- Claude Code included from Pro: Pro, Max, Ultra and Team plans include Claude Code, Anthropic's terminal and IDE coding agent, so there is no separate coding subscription to buy.
- Chat and Cowork in one app: Since September 2026 long hand-off tasks run from the same conversation as quick questions and can continue after you close the app.
- Ultra without the five-hour window: Ultra removes the rolling five-hour limit for verified accounts and sets a weekly allowance ten times that of Pro.
- API credits on Max and Ultra: The two top personal plans include monthly credits for building on the Claude Platform, and Team seats share a pooled credit allowance.
- Docs, Slides, Design and Artifacts: Claude drafts documents, slide decks and small apps you can edit together, and these tools are included on the Free plan.
- Connectors and MCP: Model Context Protocol support lets Claude reach external tools, databases and files through one standard instead of custom integrations.
- Enterprise controls: Enterprise adds SCIM, audit logs, user and organisation spend limits and role-based access on top of the Team feature set.
Pros
- The Free plan covers everyday writing and analysis without a card, using Sonnet and Haiku.
- Claude Code comes bundled from the entry paid plan, so one subscription covers both chat and an autonomous coding agent.
- Team and Enterprise add admin controls (SCIM, audit logs, custom data retention) that suit regulated buyers, with a HIPAA business associate agreement on offer.
Cons
- No native image, audio or video generation: Claude accepts images as input but returns text and code, so generated media needs a separate tool.
- Usage limits are not a fixed message count: a rolling five-hour window plus weekly caps means heavy users hit a wall that Anthropic does not state in numbers.
- The top model, Fable, is closed to Free, costs usage credits on Pro and takes up to half the weekly limit on Max and Ultra, so full capability costs more than the entry price suggests.
- Max and Ultra are billed monthly only, with no annual discount, unlike Pro and Team.
Product Information
- Cloud
- Yes
- Self-Hosted
- No
- On-Premise
- No
- Languages
- English
- Training
- Documentation (docs.claude.com), Anthropic Academy courses, Claude Code CLI guides
Data Handling
- Training-data policy
- Does not train on API or Enterprise user data. Consumer claude.ai users opted into model improvement by default with an opt-out available in settings. Enterprise and API customers have Zero Data Retention by default.
- Data retention
- Zero retention
- Compliance
- SOC 2 Type II · ISO 27001:2022 · ISO/IEC 42001:2023 · HIPAA (BAA available) · GDPR · CCPA · Zero Data Retention
Frequently Asked Questions
What are Claude's pricing plans in 2026?
Claude Free costs $0 and Pro is $20 a month, or $17 when billed annually. Max is $100 and Ultra $200 a month, billed monthly. Team seats are $25 (Standard) and $125 (Premium) monthly, falling to $20 and $100 on annual billing, and Enterprise is $20 a seat (minimum 20 seats), with usage billed at API rates.
Can you use Claude without paying?
Yes. The Free plan covers chat with web search, memory and connected apps, files built by running code, plus Claude Docs, Slides and Design, all on Sonnet and Haiku. You give up Opus, Fable, Claude Code, Claude Science and the Chrome and Microsoft 365 add-ins, all of which start at Pro, and usage is capped every five hours and every week.
What are Claude's closest competitors?
ChatGPT if you want image and video generation built in. Gemini fits companies that run on Google Workspace. Cursor if you code inside an editor and want inline suggestions, and Perplexity if every answer needs a citation.
What separates Claude from ChatGPT?
For long-document work and coding, Claude Pro bundles Claude Code and Opus at the same entry price as ChatGPT Plus, and its desktop app can run long tasks in the background. ChatGPT bundles image and video generation, which Claude lacks. Developers who live in a terminal lean toward Claude; people who make visuals lean toward ChatGPT.
How do you get started with Claude?
A few minutes. Create an account at claude.ai or install the desktop or mobile app and start on Free. Smaller groups pick Team and larger organisations Enterprise, and can mix Standard and Premium seats. Developers who only need the API can skip the app and create a key in the Claude console.
Top Alternatives
- ChatGPT: Pick ChatGPT if you want built-in image and video generation and the widest third-party app ecosystem at a similar entry price.
- Gemini: Pick Gemini if your team already works in Google Workspace and wants the assistant inside Docs and Gmail.
- Windsurf: Pick Windsurf if you want an AI-native IDE with visual multi-file diffs instead of a terminal-first coding agent.
Hokai guides covering Claude
- Claude vs Gemini in 2026: Which Assistant Fits How You Work?: Claude vs Gemini priced from each vendor's own pages on 5 Nov 2026: plans from $0 to $200, which plans get Gemini 4 Argon, and a clear winner for six jobs.
- Best AI Assistant for Office Work in 2026: Which AI assistant fits an office in 2026? Compare Microsoft 365 Copilot, Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude Team and email and meeting tools with real seat prices.
- Best AI Chatbots in 2026: Free and Paid Picks for Everyday Use: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Mistral's Vibe, Poe and Character.ai compared on price and actual job fit, not raw model rank, with a decision table and 2026 pricing.
- Which LLM Should You Use? GPT-6.1 Sol, Opus 5.5, Argon and More (October 2026): Latest LLM releases compared on price and Artificial Analysis index score: Claude Opus 5.5 leads at 58, Haiku 5.5 is the budget pick. Checked 28 Oct 2026.
- Best AI Tools for Writing a Recommendation Letter in 2026: Best AI for a letter of recommendation: ChatGPT or Claude for a full draft, Jotform's free generator in under a minute, Grammarly to polish. Prices and privacy.
- Anthropic Taught Claude to Fill Carts. It Skipped the Register on Purpose.: Anthropic gave retailers free Claude commerce agents on Sept 2, skipped payment on purpose, and backed the results with numbers nobody has checked yet.