Is Claude Free? Free Plan Limits vs Pro, and Claude Code (2026)

Yes, Claude is free to use. Anthropic's Free plan costs $0 and works on the web, desktop and mobile. It includes web search, file creation, code execution, memory, connectors and Artifacts, but it only runs the Sonnet and Haiku models and has tighter usage limits.

Claude Code is not included on the Free plan. The cheapest plan that includes it is Pro, at $20/month or $17/month billed annually ($200 up front).

What the Claude Free plan includes

According to Anthropic's pricing page as of October 17, 2026, Free includes:

• Chat on web, desktop and mobile
• Web search, file creation and code execution
• Memory across conversations
• App and tool connectors, Artifacts, and Claude Design, Slides and Docs
• Up to 5 Projects
• Sonnet and Haiku models only
• A context window listed as up to 1M tokens, depending on the model

Free does not include Opus or Fable models, Claude Code, Research, Claude in Chrome, scheduled tasks or usage credits that let you keep working past your limit.

What you need to sign up

• An account created at claude.ai or in the Claude desktop or mobile app.
• No payment method. The pricing page describes Free as “free for everyone.”
• Access from a supported country or region. Anthropic only offers Claude in supported locations, and the help center notes the same restriction for Pro.

Claude Free vs Pro vs Max

Anthropic's pricing comparison table lists priority access at high-traffic times only for Max, while its help-center article on Pro still mentions priority access for Pro subscribers. If guaranteed access at busy times matters to you, check the current pricing page before you buy.

Team plans start at $20 per standard seat per month billed annually ($25 monthly) for 2 to 150 seats, and Enterprise starts at $20 per seat per month billed annually with a 20-seat minimum plus usage at API rates. See Claude pricing for every plan.

How many free messages does Claude give you? (¿Cuántos mensajes gratis tiene Claude?)

Anthropic doesn't publish a fixed message count for the Free plan. Its pricing FAQ says limits reset on a rolling five-hour window, and its help center explains that usage depends on conversation length and complexity, the features you use, the model you choose and the effort level. Long chats with big files run out sooner than short questions. Any “X messages per day” figure you see online is a third-party estimate, not an official number.

En español: Anthropic no publica un número fijo de mensajes gratis. El plan Free tiene límites de uso que se reinician en una ventana móvil de cinco horas, y la cantidad depende de la longitud de la conversación, los archivos que adjuntes, las funciones que uses y el modelo.

How to stretch the Free plan

These tips come from Anthropic's own guidance on usage and length limits:

• Start a new chat when you change topics. Long conversations use more of your allowance with every message, because Claude rereads the earlier context.
• Use Projects for documents you reuse. Projects load only the relevant content, and you get up to 5 on Free. Keep project instructions short and remove files you no longer need.
• Turn off what you don't need. Disable web search, connectors and extended thinking when a question doesn't need them.
• Paste the relevant part, not the whole file. A 40-page PDF costs far more than the two pages you actually want help with.

What happens when you hit the limit

Claude tells you when your access resets. On Free, your choices are to wait for the five-hour window to roll over or upgrade. Paid plans can also turn on usage credits, which are charged at standard API rates, so work continues instead of stopping. Your chats, Projects and files stay in your account whichever you choose.

Is Claude Code free?

No. Claude Code comes with Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise, but not with Free. On paid plans it shares the same usage pool as chat, so heavy coding sessions use up the same allowance you'd use in the Claude app.

You can also run Claude Code with a Claude Console (API) account and pay standard per-token API rates instead of a subscription. Anthropic's API pricing page says new users receive a small amount of free credits to test the API. That is enough to try things out but not for regular coding. See Claude Code pricing, Claude API pricing and our guides to getting an Anthropic API key and installing Claude Code.

Subscription or API: which is cheaper for coding?

It depends on how much you use it. A subscription is a fixed monthly price with usage limits. The API has no monthly fee but charges for every token. As of October 2026, Anthropic lists Claude Sonnet 5.5 at $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens, and Claude Haiku 5.5 at $0.10 and $0.50 for prompts up to 100,000 tokens. If you only code occasionally, API billing can cost less than $20 a month. If you code every day, Pro or Max is usually more predictable.

Every legitimate way to get Claude free or cheaper

1. Use the Free plan. It's permanent and needs no card, just an account in a supported country.
2. Accept a guest pass. Claude Code's `/passes` command lets eligible subscribers “share a free week of Claude Code with friends.” See the Claude free trial guide for how it works.
3. Get it through your university. Schools on the Claude for Education plan give students, faculty and staff access. Details are on the Claude student options page.
4. Maintain open source. The Claude for Open Source program gives qualifying maintainers six months of Max 20x at no cost. Its official terms cap recipients at 10,000, which Anthropic may raise.
5. Build a startup. Claude for Startups offers partner perks, plus API credits through partner VCs. The direct cohort was full as of October 2026.
6. Try the API's starter credits. New API accounts get a small free credit, according to Anthropic's pricing documentation.
7. Pay annually. Pro costs $17/month billed annually instead of $20 monthly, which saves $40 a year ($240 − $200).
8. Nonprofits: Anthropic offers eligible nonprofits discounts of up to 75% on Team and Enterprise plans. The discount doesn't apply to Pro.

Anthropic says there is no standard discounted pricing for individual Pro or Max plans and that support can't issue one-off discounts or coupons. Treat sites selling “Claude promo codes” or shared Pro accounts as unofficial. Shared accounts may break Anthropic's terms.

If you upgrade: prices, taxes, refunds and going back to Free

Moving from Free to Pro is low-risk if you understand how billing works. These points come from Anthropic's pricing FAQ and help center:

• Regional prices differ. $20/month is the US price. Anthropic charges in local currency where supported, some regions show tax in the price and others add it at checkout, and app-store prices can differ from web prices.
• Upgrades apply immediately. Your new limits take effect at once, and unused time on your old plan is credited.
• Downgrades wait for the billing period to end. If you cancel Pro, you keep it until the period you paid for runs out, then return to Free.
• Your data stays. Chats, Projects and files stay with your account when you switch plans. If you drop back to Free, the 5-Project cap and Free model list apply again.
• Refunds are limited. Payments are generally non-refundable except where Anthropic's Consumer Terms or local law say otherwise, and the process depends on whether you subscribed on the web, through Apple or through Google Play.
• Annual billing is cheaper but less flexible. Switching from monthly to annual credits your unused monthly time toward the first annual invoice.

A sensible path is to stay on Free until you hit its limits regularly, then pay for one month of Pro on monthly billing. Switch to annual only once you know you'll use it all year.

Who is the Free plan good for?

How Claude Free compares with other free AI tools

Most major assistants have a free tier with tighter limits and older or smaller models, so the right choice depends on what you need. If you want coding help, compare Claude Code's paid plans with Is Codex free? and the free GitHub Copilot for students offer. If you want free API access to build something, see our guide to free AI API keys and the Gemini API free tier.

Bottom line

For chat, writing and light analysis, Claude Free is enough for most people. Upgrade to Pro if you need Claude Code, Opus models, Research or more room before you hit limits. Go to Max only if you regularly hit Pro's limits or want the included API credits.