Claude

What is Claude?

Job it does: Claude (Anthropic) is the assistant to pick when careful long-form writing, nuanced analysis, or agentic coding via Claude Code matters more than plugins and image generation. Current models include Fable 5.1 (top tier; reached through usage credits on Pro, up to 50% of weekly limits on Max and Ultra), Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5.5 and Haiku 5.5 — confirm which your plan exposes on claude.ai.

Recent updates (Oct–Nov 2026): Anthropic released Claude Haiku 5.5 on 7 Oct 2026 — its fast, low-cost small model for high-volume work such as summarisation, classification and sub-agent tasks, selectable on Claude.ai across plans and via the API as claude-haiku-5-5 (Anthropic). On 8 Oct 2026 Anthropic added two beta features: Claude Dashboards, which builds live dashboards from a connected data platform or CRM (paid plans), and Claude Motion, which turns reports and charts into editable, code-built animations exported as MP4 (Team and Enterprise) (Claude). On 21 Oct 2026 Anthropic opened a research preview of Claude Duet, a proactive agent app on iOS, Android and claude.ai built around Opus 5.5: it sends a morning brief from your connected apps, flags what needs your attention, works on tasks while you are away and checks with you before acting. It is a waitlisted research preview for Pro, Max and Ultra subscribers in the US, shares your plan’s usage limits (its background checks count too), and is not yet included in Team or Enterprise plans (Claude Duet, checked 4 Nov 2026). On 5 Nov 2026 Anthropic began rolling out Personal Finance in beta for US Pro, Max and Ultra plans: read-only bank and card connections via Plaid so you can ask about balances, spending and upcoming payments in everyday language. It cannot move, manage or invest money, and Personal Finance hub chats are not used to train models (Claude: Personal Finance). On 5 Nov 2026 the Claude Platform release notes added beta IP allowlisting in the Claude Console (up to 1,000 IPv4/IPv6 or CIDR ranges per organisation; covered requests from other IPs are refused) and Admin API sign-out-everywhere for Claude Enterprise members (Claude Platform release notes; Claude Help: IP allowlisting).

Who should skip: skip Claude as your primary tool if you need built-in image generation (ChatGPT / Gemini), citation-first live-web research (Perplexity), or you only ask rare one-off questions (stay on free ChatGPT). Also skip the $100 Max and $200 Ultra plans until Pro’s usage limits are actually blocking you.

Current price (verified 2 Nov 2026): Free $0 · Pro $20/month, or $17/month billed annually ($200 up front) · Max $100/month (5× Pro usage) · Ultra $200/month (10× Pro weekly usage, no five-hour limit for verified accounts), both monthly only. Ultra is the new name for the old Max 20× plan; existing Max 20× subscribers moved to Ultra automatically with no price change. Sources: claude.com/pricing; Claude Help: Ultra plan.

Concrete limitation: usage runs on a rolling five-hour window (plus weekly limits on paid plans; verified Ultra accounts have no five-hour limit) shared across chat and Claude Code. Anthropic lists context as “up to 1M, varies by model” on Free, Pro, Max and Ultra. Free has no Opus, Claude Code or Research, and Claude has no native image generator (claude.com/pricing).

Named alternatives: ChatGPT when you want images (Images 2.6) and the widest plugin ecosystem; Gemini when you live in Google Workspace; Cursor when the job is multi-file editing inside an IDE. Editor score 4.8/5 is an editorial judgment from a listing check against vendor docs (Listing checked 6 Nov 2026) — not a hands-on test or a fabricated review count.

• Long-form writing and nuanced analysis
• Large codebase work with Claude Code
• Long documents — context up to 1M tokens, varying by model

• Guaranteed factual accuracy
• Real-time financial data

Decision notes — Claude (checked 2 Nov 2026)

Every fact below comes from the vendor’s own pricing, help or release-notes pages, checked 2 Nov 2026. Editorial listing check, not a hands-on test.

Exact price

• Free $0 (claude.com/pricing).
• Pro $20/month billed monthly, or $17/month billed annually ($200 up front).
• Max $100/month: 5× Pro usage every five hours and every week, plus $100 a month in API credits.
• Ultra $200/month (formerly Max 20×): 10× Pro usage every week, no five-hour limit for verified accounts, plus $200 a month in API credits (Claude Help: Ultra plan). Max and Ultra are monthly billing only.
• Enterprise $20 per seat per month plus usage at API rates, billed annually. Team (2–150 seats) price not re-checked.

Usage limits

• Plans have a rolling five-hour usage window (verified Ultra accounts excepted); paid plans add weekly limits. Anthropic publishes no fixed message count. Pro gives at least 5× Free usage per session; Max gives 5× Pro every five hours and every week; Ultra gives 10× Pro every week.
• Chat on web, desktop, mobile and Claude Code all draw from one pool. Context window: “up to 1M, varies by model” on Free, Pro, Max and Ultra.
• At a limit, paid plans can switch on usage credits billed at standard API rates; Anthropic may also apply weekly or monthly caps at its discretion.

Plan limitations

• Free has no Opus, no Claude Code, no Research and up to 5 Projects.
• Top model Fable 5.1 is not on Free; Pro reaches it through usage credits (API list $10 in / $50 out per 1M tokens) and Max can spend up to 50% of weekly limits on it.
• Claude Motion (beta) is Team/Enterprise only; Claude Design, Slides and Docs are on every plan including Free.
• Payments are generally non-refundable outside the EEA/UK 14-day withdrawal window.
• API developers: fast mode on Claude Opus 4.8 is deprecated and will be removed on 30 November 2026; after that, fast-mode requests to claude-opus-4-8 return an error. Anthropic points users to Claude Opus 5.5, whose fast mode costs $8 in / $40 out per 1M tokens (Claude docs: fast mode).

Who should skip it — and what to use instead

• You want an agentic coding tool on a free plan → GitHub Copilot Free (limited chat and agent use) — Claude Code needs a paid Claude plan.
• Image generation is your main job → ChatGPT (Images 2.6 on every tier) or Midjourney (from $10/month).
• You live in Gmail, Docs and Drive → Gemini on Google AI Pro ($19.99/month).
• You need answers with live citations → Perplexity.

Pricing Plans

Pros & Cons