Claude
Safety-focused AI assistant excelling at reasoning, coding, and long-form analysis
Claude is a family of large language models developed by Anthropic, an AI safety company founded in 2021. Available as both a consumer-facing chat application and API, Claude powers conversational AI, software development, document analysis, and complex reasoning tasks with Constitutional AI training emphasising safety and reliable instruction-following. The current flagship model is Claude Opus 4.7, alongside mid-tier Sonnet 4.6 and cost-efficient Haiku 4.5.
How we scored it
A weighted average of the 4 dimensions below, each judged 0–10 from published pricing, vendor documentation and independent user feedback. We do not run hands-on tests, and no vendor has any say in a score.
2 further dimensions are not scored for this product yet, so they are left out of the average rather than counted as zero. How the score works.
What it actually costs
Intro pricing shown — see the renewal note for what you'll pay after the introductory term. We don't hide the second-act price.
Pro
More usage than Free; includes Claude Code, Design, Slides, Docs, Projects
Max 20x
20x Pro usage per 5-hour session; higher output limits; monthly only
What to check before you commit to Claude
A tool is judged on what it costs once it is adopted, not what it costs to try. These are the four things that change that number.
The price once it is adopted
At $20 a seat, five people is $100 a month ($1200 a year) and ten is $200 ($2400 a year). Tools are bought one seat at a time and paid for by the dozen.
Where the usage ceiling sits
Credits, generations, exports and API calls are the lines that run out mid-month. Find what happens when you hit the cap — hard stop, throttle, or an overage rate you have not budgeted for.
What the free tier is really for
A free tier is an evaluation, not a plan. Check which limit you would hit first in real use, because that is the one that decides when you start paying.
Getting your work back out
Export formats decide how reversible this decision is. A tool that only exports to its own format costs more to leave than its price suggests.
These are the checks we apply across ai tools, in the same order, so two pages can be compared line for line.
How much does Claude really cost?
Our calculation from the vendor's published prices — not a figure the vendor advertises.
One price covers the account whatever the team size, so cost per person falls as the team grows. Individual subscription plans billed monthly at fixed rates; Pro offers annual billing discount option; Max plans monthly only
| Team size | Per month | Per year | Over 3 years | How it is charged |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 person | $20 | $240 | $720 | Flat rate — seats are not charged separately on this plan |
| 5 people | $20 | $240 | $720 | Flat rate — seats are not charged separately on this plan |
| 10 people | $20 | $240 | $720 | Flat rate — seats are not charged separately on this plan |
| 50 people | $20 | $240 | $720 | Flat rate — seats are not charged separately on this plan |
Based on the Pro plan at $20 a month. Three years at the current monthly price. The vendor does not publish a renewal rate, so no increase is assumed.
- The vendor does not publish a renewal price, so three-year totals assume today's price holds.
- No annual price recorded, so annual figures are twelve times the monthly price.
Work out your own cost
- Flat rate — the price does not change with team size.
- No renewal increase is published, so today's price is held flat.
Claude against the field
The highest-scoring alternatives in the same category, compared on the figures we hold for all of them.
| ClaudeThis page | ChatGPT | Grammarly | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ReviewCost score | 8.1/10 | 8.3/10 | 8.3/10 |
| Cheapest plan | Free | — | — |
| From | — | — | — |
| Renews at | Not published | Not published | Not published |
| Biggest strength | Superior reasoning and complex multi-step problem-solving compared to competitors; excels at code review and architecture work | Breadth of capabilities: text, code, images, voice, web browsing, file analysis, and agentic task execution in one interface | Real-time detection across 400+ grammar and spelling rule types with multi-language support |
| Biggest drawback | No image generation or video creation capability; limited to text and vision understanding only | Free and Go tiers now include ads in US and EU markets; conversation data used for training by default (manual opt-out required) | 150% price markup for month-to-month billing ($30) vs annual ($12/month); surprise auto-renewal charges when free trial lapses without cancellation |
Prices are the published figures at the time of writing and change often. Renewal pricing is shown where the vendor publishes it. See how we review.
What people ask about Claude
Straight answers to what buyers actually ask, drawn from the documentation and published user reports.
Is Claude worth $20/month versus ChatGPT Plus?
Does Claude Code inclusion in the Pro tier still stand in May 2026?
How much does Claude API actually cost in production?
Why do reviewers report Claude Code consuming tokens so quickly?
What are Claude's real limitations I should know about?
Page history
- Published
- 22 May 2026
- Last updated
- 1 October 2026
- Pricing checked against vendor
- 26 September 2026
Sources & verification
Pricing on this page was taken from the vendor's published pricing page on 26 September 2026.
- What is the Pro plan? | Claude Help CenterOfficial documentation · Anthropic · read 26 September 2026
- What is the Max plan? | Claude Help CenterOfficial documentation · Anthropic · read 26 September 2026
- Plans & Pricing | Claude by AnthropicOfficial pricing page · Anthropic · read 26 September 2026