Among AI assistants, there’s one that gets less buzz than ChatGPT but has won over a lot of demanding users: Claude, made by the American company Anthropic. Known for the quality of its writing, its sharp analysis and its careful approach, it has become the go-to tool for many writers, researchers and developers.
In this guide, I’ll walk you through what Claude is, how to use it for free, what it does best, how projects and artifacts work, and which paid plans are available. You’ll also find ready-to-copy prompts and my tips for getting the most out of it. If you’re torn between the two, my ChatGPT vs. Claude comparison will help you choose.
Key takeaways
- Claude is Anthropic’s AI assistant, available on the web, on desktop and on mobile.
- It’s especially popular for writing, analyzing long documents and coding.
- The free version lets you try it out, but you’ll hit the limits quickly with long documents.
- Projects and artifacts are its two standout features for working efficiently.
- Claude doesn’t generate illustrations the way an image generator does, but it does create charts and interactive visuals; its voice mode is in beta.
Information checked on September 28, 2026.
Contents
- What is Claude?
- How to get started with Claude
- What Claude does best
- Projects: keep your work organized
- Artifacts: standalone documents
- Personalizing Claude
- Claude free vs. paid
- 6 prompts to get started with Claude
- Claude in everyday life: four real-world situations
- My method for working with Claude
- Claude's limitations
- Privacy
- Frequently asked questions
- The bottom line
What is Claude?
Claude is a conversational assistant created by Anthropic, a company founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees. Anthropic has put AI safety and reliability at the heart of its mission, and you can feel it in how Claude behaves: it’s more willing to flag when it’s unsure, it gives nuanced answers and it turns down certain sensitive requests.
Claude runs on a family of models that gets updated regularly. As of September 2026, Anthropic offers Sonnet 5.5 (launched September 28, 2026, available to everyone on Claude.ai) for everyday use, Opus 5.5 for complex tasks and Fable 5.1 for the most demanding work. On paid plans, you can pick your model and turn on extended thinking for tough problems.
Like ChatGPT, Claude understands and writes English (and many other languages) very well. A lot of users find its style more natural and less “robotic,” which makes it a great writing partner.
How to get started with Claude
- On the web: go to claude.ai and sign up with your email address or a Google account.
- On desktop: install the Claude app for Mac or Windows.
- On mobile: download the app for iPhone or Android.
Signing up is free. You may be asked to verify a phone number when you create your account.
What Claude does best
Writing and rewriting
This is its best-known strength. Claude shines at drafting long pieces, adjusting tone, reworking a clunky passage or giving honest feedback on a draft. It handles nuance well: a delicate letter, a speech, a personal introduction.
Here's the toast I'm giving at my sister's wedding: [text]. Help me make it more moving and smoother to read, without making it longer and while keeping my stories. Also point out any lines that might make someone uncomfortable.
Analyzing long documents
Claude can read very long documents (reports, contracts, books, studies) and answer specific questions while quoting the relevant passages. It’s especially good at cross-referencing several documents.
Here are two versions of my employment contract, the old one and the new one. List every difference, rank them by how much they matter to me, and flag the ones worth discussing with HR.
Thinking things through
When you need to untangle a complicated problem, prepare a decision or structure a project, Claude readily asks questions and offers nuanced reasoning. Turn on extended thinking for the hardest cases.
Coding
Developers love Claude for writing, explaining and fixing code. Anthropic also offers dedicated developer tools that can work directly inside a software project. For occasional use, it’s just as helpful for writing a spreadsheet formula or a small script.
Searching the web
Claude can search the web and cite its sources, as long as web search is turned on in its tools. For a more thorough investigation, the Research feature runs an in-depth search and produces a detailed report; it’s only available on paid plans.
Projects: keep your work organized
Projects bring together your conversations, reference documents and specific instructions around a single topic. Everything you add to a project is taken into account in every new conversation inside it.
A few ways to use them:
- A thesis or dissertation: your notes, outline and sources all in one place.
- Your business: company overview, style guide, products and services.
- A home renovation: quotes, floor plans, constraints and budget.
- Writing a novel: character sheets, plot summary, target style.
Project instructions: you're helping me write a crime novel set in New Orleans in 1962. Stick to the attached character sheets and timeline. My style is spare, with short sentences. Flag anything that contradicts earlier chapters.
This is the feature I use most: it saves me from re-explaining the context in every conversation.
Artifacts: standalone documents
Claude can create artifacts: documents, presentations, designs, dashboards, web pages or small interactive tools that you can edit, reuse and share. Since September 2026, Anthropic has been rolling out a new artifacts experience along with Claude Docs, Claude Slides and Claude Design templates on paid plans.
It’s really handy for:
- a document you’ll be revising several times;
- a small tool: budget calculator, quiz, timer, converter;
- a visualization: a chart or diagram built from your data;
- a simple web page: an invitation, an “about me” page.
Build me a small interactive tool to track my weekly grocery budget: I enter items and their prices, and it shows the total, how much I have left out of a $120 budget, and an alert if I go over.
No coding skills needed: Claude writes the code and the tool runs right inside the artifact.
Personalizing Claude
Claude gives you several ways to tailor its answers:
- Profile preferences: you tell it who you are and how you like to be answered.
- Styles: you pick a response style (more concise, more explanatory, more formal) or create your own from samples of your writing.
- Project instructions: guidelines that apply to every conversation in a project.
- Memory: Claude can remember useful information from your conversations and reuse it in new chats. You can review and edit what it remembers in the settings.
- Search across past conversations, on paid plans, to pull in context from earlier chats directly.
It works a lot like ChatGPT’s memory: get into the habit of checking what Claude has remembered every now and then.
Claude free vs. paid
The free version lets you explore Claude: chat, writing, file analysis, web search, memory, artifacts and up to 5 projects. Its limits depend on the length of your conversations, your files and the tools you use: with long documents, you can hit the cap fast.
| Plan | Approximate price | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Trying it out, occasional use |
| Pro | $20 per month or $200 per year on the web; $20 per month or $214.99 a year on the US App Store | Regular use, Research, model choice |
| Max 5x | $100 per month | Heavy use |
| Max 20x | $200 per month | Very heavy use, developers |
| Team and Enterprise | Custom quote or per user | Businesses |
App Store pricing can be higher: $124.99 a month for Max 5x and $249.99 a month for Max 20x in the US at the time of checking. Pricing varies by region and billing channel, sales tax may apply, and the annual plan is cheaper. Always check the official website before subscribing.
6 prompts to get started with Claude
1. Get honest feedback on your writing
Here's my text: [text]. Give me candid feedback like a tough editor would: what works, what doesn't, and the three most important changes to make. Don't rewrite it yet.
2. Prepare for a difficult conversation
I need to tell my business partner that I want to leave our company. Help me prepare for this conversation: the points to cover, the order, phrases to avoid, and possible reactions with a response for each one.
3. Understand a complex document
Explain this document to me like I'm 15, then list the 5 pieces of information that affect me directly and the questions I should ask.
4. Plan a project
I want to start a gardening podcast. First ask me 8 questions to understand my project, then give me a 3-month launch plan.
5. Build a simple tool
Create an interactive tracker for my daily habits (exercise, reading, water, sleep), with a checkbox for each day and a weekly success percentage.
6. Rewrite in a specific style
Rewrite this paragraph in a warmer, more direct style, in the first person, with short sentences, without changing any of the information: [paragraph].
Claude in everyday life: four real-world situations
Replying to an official letter
You get a letter from your insurance company denying a claim. Upload it (with your personal details blacked out) and ask Claude to explain the reason for the denial and your options for appealing, then draft a firm but polite reply. It’s especially good at striking the right tone in situations like this.
Preparing for a job interview
Give it the job posting and your resume, then ask it to play the recruiter. It asks you questions one at a time, waits for your answers and gives you honest feedback at the end: strengths, answers that were too vague, questions to prepare better.
Play the recruiter for this position: [job posting]. Here's my resume: [resume]. Ask me 8 questions, one at a time, and wait for my answer each time. At the end, give me detailed, honest feedback.
Planning a family event
Birthday, family reunion, holiday party: describe the number of guests, the budget and the constraints (kids, dietary needs, venue) and ask for a complete plan, then an artifact with the task list and a countdown schedule.
Learning a subject from scratch
To learn a new field (basic bookkeeping, art history, photography), ask Claude to build a step-by-step learning path with explanations, examples and short exercises with answers. Put it all in a project so you can track your progress from one session to the next.
My method for working with Claude
Here’s how I approach an important piece of work:
- I create a project with the reference documents and clear instructions.
- I ask for questions first: “before you start, ask me whatever you need to know.”
- I have it produce a first draft in an artifact.
- I ask for a critique of that first draft, as if from a demanding reviewer.
- I iterate in small steps instead of rewriting everything at once.
This approach works really well with Claude, which takes the time to understand what you need before producing anything.
Claude’s limitations
- No illustration generation: Claude analyzes images you send it and creates charts or interactive visuals, but it doesn’t generate photos or illustrations. For that, see my guide on creating images with ChatGPT.
- Voice mode is still in beta: it’s available on mobile, web and desktop, and supports several languages.
- The free version runs out fast with long documents.
- It can make mistakes, like every assistant: double-check important information, especially when web search is off.
- It’s sometimes overly cautious: it may refuse or hedge on a legitimate request; rephrasing with more context usually does the trick.
Privacy
Anthropic lets you choose whether your conversations can be used to improve its models, and lets you delete your history. Take a few minutes to review these options in the privacy settings. As always: no passwords, no banking details and no sensitive health information in your conversations.
Frequently asked questions
Is Claude free?
Yes, Claude has a free version, with usage limits that depend on the length of your conversations and files. The Pro plan raises those limits significantly.
Does Claude speak other languages?
Yes, Claude understands and writes English very well, as well as many other languages, with a style that people often describe as natural.
Can Claude search the internet?
Yes, when web search is turned on in its tools. The Research feature, for in-depth searches, is limited to paid plans.
What is an artifact?
An artifact is a space separate from the chat where Claude displays substantial content: a document, table, code, web page or small interactive tool that you can edit and share.
Is Claude better than ChatGPT?
It’s often preferred for writing, long documents and coding, but ChatGPT is more versatile. I compare the two in my article ChatGPT vs. Claude.
The bottom line
Claude is an outstanding assistant for writing, analyzing and thinking, with two features that change the way you work: projects to keep your context and artifacts to produce documents and tools. Start with the free version on a piece of writing or a document that matters to you: you’ll quickly see whether it’s a good fit.
To go further, read my ChatGPT vs. Claude comparison and my guide on writing a good prompt.
