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Free tier

Can I use Claude for free?

Yes. Claude has a free plan at $0 with no credit card, and it covers chatting, generating code, searching the web, uploading files and remembering context across conversations. There is one line worth knowing before you start: Claude Code is not on the free plan - Anthropic ships the terminal tool with Claude Pro and Max. Everything below was read off Anthropic's own pricing page and help centre on 8 August 2026.

Free plan: $0Pro: $20/moClaude Code: paid only
Curious mascot - head tilted, working out what is included.

In one line

You can learn Claude for free. You cannot run Claude Code for free.

The free plan

What you get for nothing.

Anthropic's pricing page lists these under the $0 plan.

  • Chat on the web, iOS, Android and desktop
  • Generate code and visualise data
  • Write, edit and create content
  • Search the web
  • Memory across conversations
  • Create files and execute code
The wall

What costs money.

  • Claude Code in your terminal. Ships with Pro and Max. Not on the free plan.
  • Claude Cowork. Listed under Pro.
  • Higher usage. Pro is the step up; Max is 5x or 20x Pro.
  • The certification exams. $99 to $175 depending on which one, proctored via Pearson VUE. Nothing to do with the plan you are on.

Anthropic's help centre puts the Claude Code line directly: "With Pro and Max plans, you now have access to both Claude on the web, desktop, and mobile apps and Claude Code in your terminal with one unified subscription." It also notes that usage limits are shared across the two, so terminal work and browser chat draw on the same budget rather than separate ones.

The honest bit

Nobody knows the exact free limit.

Anthropic does not publish a message count for the free plan. Third-party write-ups do, and they contradict each other - two well-circulated estimates from the last month differ by a factor of three on the same question. We are not going to reprint either of them, because a number repeated on enough prep sites starts being treated as a fact, and that is precisely the mechanism this site exists to push back on.

What Anthropic does state, and what every account agrees on, is the shape: usage limits apply, they reset on a rolling window rather than a daily cap, and the allowance is smaller on the more capable models. So the useful answer is not a number. It is that the free plan is comfortable for learning and tight for daily building - which matches what people report. One developer put it on X in August 2026: started on the free tier, hit the limits within a week, upgraded to the $20 plan.

We would rather say "we do not know" than print a confident figure. This site has a worked exampleof what happens when prep sites repeat a number nobody checked - the widely-quoted "2 years" certification validity was an invention that propagated across the whole category.

What to do with it

How far free gets you here.

Everything on this site is free, including the parts that usually are not. The 10-minute diagnostic needs no account and names your weakest exam domain. The course hub is free with no paid tier. If your question was really about the certification rather than the product, the split between what is free and what costs $125 is on the free Claude certification page.

Take the free 10-min diagnosticStart Claude 101
FAQ

6 questions about using Claude for free

Every Q is phrased as a real Google search query. Answers cite the same evidence-tagged sources used elsewhere on the site.

Can I use Claude for free?
Yes. Anthropic runs a free Claude plan at $0 with no credit card. According to claude.com/pricing it includes chatting on web, iOS, Android and desktop, generating code and visualising data, writing and editing content, web search, memory across conversations, and creating files and executing code. What the free plan does not include is Claude Code. Verified 8 August 2026.
Can I use Claude Code for free?
No. Claude Code requires a paid plan. Anthropic's help centre states that Pro and Max plans give access to both Claude on the web, desktop and mobile apps and Claude Code in the terminal under one unified subscription, and the free plan on the pricing page does not list it. Pro is $20 a month, or $17 a month billed annually. Anthropic also notes that usage limits are shared across Claude and Claude Code, so terminal work and browser chat draw down the same budget.
What are the free plan's usage limits?
Anthropic does not publish a message count for the free plan, and we are not going to invent one. What Anthropic does say is that usage limits apply and reset on a rolling window rather than a daily cap, and that the allowance varies with how heavy your usage is and which model you are on. Third-party estimates of a specific number exist and they contradict each other, which is a good reason to distrust all of them. Check Anthropic's own usage-limit guidance for the current position.
Is Claude free like ChatGPT?
Both have a free tier, and both meter it. The practical difference people report is where the ceiling sits and how quickly you notice it: the free Claude plan is generous enough for casual use and tight enough that regular daily work runs into it. One developer put it plainly on X in August 2026 - started on the free tier, hit the limits within a week, upgraded to the $20 plan. That is a fair description of the pattern.
Is Claude not free anymore?
It is still free. The free plan has not been removed - it is listed at $0 on Anthropic's pricing page as of August 2026. What changes over time is what the paid tiers add and how the usage limits are tuned, which is usually what people mean when they ask this.
How far can I get on the free plan?
Further than most people expect for learning, and not far for building. Every lesson on this site is readable for free, the 10-minute diagnostic needs no account, and the free Claude plan is enough to follow along with prompting, projects and context work. The wall you hit is Claude Code, which needs Pro - so the honest split is that you can learn Claude for free and you cannot run the terminal tool for free.

Plan contents and pricing read from claude.com/pricing and Anthropic's help centre on 8 August 2026. Usage limits are Anthropic's to change and they do - check their support site before making a decision on the strength of any figure here.