Plan guide
Is Claude free? What you get without paying, and what you don’t
Claude has a free plan that anyone can use on the web, desktop and phone. Here is exactly what it includes, what you have to pay for, and how its limits work, from Anthropic’s own pricing page.
Yes, Claude is free, with no time limit. The free plan gets the Sonnet and Haiku models, web search, file creation, Artifacts, memory and voice. You need Pro ($20 a month, or $17 paid yearly) for Claude Code, the Opus model, Research and roughly five times more use. Claude can’t make pictures on any plan.
What the free plan includes
| Feature | Free | Pro ($20) |
|---|---|---|
| Chat on web, desktop, iPhone and Android | Yes | Yes |
| Models | Sonnet, Haiku | + Opus |
| Web search | Yes | Yes |
| Create files and run code (spreadsheets, documents, charts) | Yes | Yes |
| Artifacts (small apps and pages inside the chat) | Yes | Yes |
| Memory across conversations | Yes | Yes |
| Voice mode | Yes | Yes |
| Connect apps (connectors) and skills | Yes | Yes |
| Projects | Up to 5 | Unlimited |
| Incognito chats | Yes | Yes |
| Research (long, multi-source reports) | No | Yes |
| Claude Code | No | Yes |
| Claude Design, Slides, Docs | No | Yes |
| Claude in Chrome, Microsoft 365 and Outlook | No | Yes |
| Usage | Base | At least 5× Free per five hours |
| Make pictures or video | No | No |
From Anthropic’s pricing page, checked Oct 2, 2026. Prices in US dollars before tax.
What you have to pay for
Pro costs $20 a month, or $200 paid up front for a year (about $17 a month). It adds the Opus model, Research, Claude Code, Claude Design, Slides and Docs, Claude in Chrome and Microsoft 365, unlimited projects, and at least five times the free plan’s usage. When you run out, Pro and Max can buy extra “usage credits” at standard API rates instead of waiting.
Max starts at $100 a month for five times Pro’s usage, with a 20× tier above it. It’s billed monthly and is meant for people who use Claude all day, mostly for coding. Most newcomers never need it.
How the free limits work
Anthropic doesn’t publish a fixed number of free messages. Every plan has a usage allowance that resets on a rolling five-hour window, and paid plans also have weekly limits. Long conversations, big PDFs and heavier models use the allowance up faster. Chats, the desktop app and Claude Code all draw from the same pool. You can see where you stand under Settings → Usage.
Three ways to stretch the free plan: start a new chat when you change topic (long threads cost more each turn), paste only the part of a document you need, and use Haiku for quick questions.
Claude Free vs ChatGPT Free vs Gemini Free
| Claude Free | ChatGPT Free | Gemini Free | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Makes pictures | No | Yes, limited | Yes |
| Deep research | No | Limited | Yes |
| Coding agent | No (Claude Code needs Pro) | Codex, limited | Gemini CLI, free allowance |
| Cheapest upgrade | Pro $20 | Go $8 | AI Plus $4.99 reported |
| Ads | No | Yes, for US adults reported | None announced |
| Trains on your chats | Yes, opt-out | Yes, opt-out | Yes, opt-out |
Claude’s free plan is strongest for writing, editing and reading long documents, and it has no ads. If you need pictures or a cheap upgrade, ChatGPT or Gemini may suit you better — see ChatGPT Free vs Go vs Plus and our full comparison. Thinking about coding? Read what Claude Code costs.
Sources: Claude pricing (Anthropic) · Anthropic privacy center · ChatGPT pricing · Gemini plans · Gemini CLI
Quick answers
Is Claude free like ChatGPT?
Yes, both have free plans. Claude Free includes chat, web search, file creation, Artifacts, memory, voice and up to 5 projects. The main differences: Claude can’t make pictures or video on any plan, and its cheapest paid plan is $20, while ChatGPT has Go at $8.
How long can you use Claude for free?
There’s no time limit — the free plan isn’t a trial. Instead, usage resets on a rolling five-hour window. How much you can do in that window depends on how long your conversations and files are, so Anthropic doesn’t give a fixed message count.
Is Claude Code free?
No. Claude Code is included in every paid plan, starting with Pro at $20 a month ($17 a month if you pay yearly), but not in Free.
Is Claude free for students?
There’s no general student discount on Claude Pro listed on Anthropic’s pricing page. Students can use the free plan; some universities provide Claude through an education plan, so check with your school.
Which Claude models are free?
Sonnet and Haiku. Opus needs Pro or Max. Fable, Anthropic’s top model, isn’t on Free: Pro users pay for it from usage credits, and Max users can spend up to half their weekly limit on it.
Does Claude Free use my chats for training?
Anthropic’s pricing page lists model training as “Opt-out” on every personal plan, including Free. Switch it off under Settings → Privacy → Model Improvement, or use an incognito chat.
Keep learning
How much does Claude Code cost? Pro, Max and pay-as-you-go explained
Claude Code isn’t free: it comes with Claude Pro ($20, or $17 yearly), Max (from $100) or pay-as-you-go API credits. What each gets you and which to choose.
ChatGPT Free vs Go vs Plus: which plan is worth paying for?
ChatGPT Free, Go ($8) and Plus ($20) compared from OpenAI’s own pricing page: models, limits, ads, deep research and Codex, and who should pick which.
Does your AI assistant learn from your chats? How to turn it off
ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, Meta AI, Grok and DeepSeek: which use your chats for training by default, how long they keep them, and the exact switch.