Claude Pricing (October 2026): Every Plan Compared

Short answer: Claude is free to start. Pro costs $20/month, or $200/year (about $17/month). Max costs $100/month (5x) or $200/month (20x). Team seats cost $25/month ($20 billed annually), and Premium seats cost $125/month ($100 billed annually). Enterprise is $20/seat/month billed annually, with a 20-seat minimum, plus usage billed at API rates. All of these prices come from Anthropic's official pricing page as of October 17, 2026 and exclude tax.

This page covers the Claude apps (web, desktop, mobile) and the subscriptions behind them. For per-token prices for developers, see Claude API pricing. For the coding agent specifically, see Claude Code pricing.

Claude plans at a glance

Anthropic doesn't publish message counts for any plan. The pricing FAQ says usage depends on conversation length and complexity, the model you choose and the features you use, so there's no fixed message count. The multiples above (5x, 20x) are the only official comparison points.

Plan-by-plan breakdown

Free ($0)

The Free plan includes chat on web, iOS, Android and desktop, web search, file creation with code execution, memory across conversations, connectors to your apps, skills, Artifacts, voice mode, and Claude Design, Slides and Docs. It includes the Sonnet and Haiku models, but not Opus or Fable. Projects are capped at 5. Research, Claude Code, Claude in Chrome, Claude for Microsoft 365 and Claude Dashboards aren't included, and you can't buy usage credits on Free. If you only ask everyday questions, Free is enough. Our guide Is Claude free? covers the Free plan's limits in detail.

Pro ($20/month or $200/year)

Pro is the entry paid tier. Anthropic says it gives at least 5x more usage per 5-hour session than Free. It adds the Opus models, Research, unlimited Projects, task hand-off and scheduling, and Claude Dashboards (beta). It also adds Claude Code, Claude Science, Claude in Chrome and Claude for Microsoft 365 and Outlook. It's the only individual plan with both monthly and annual billing. Pro doesn't include Fable in its normal allowance. The feature grid lists Fable on Pro as available through usage credits, which means you pay API rates for it.

Max 5x ($100/month) and Max 20x ($200/month)

Max is for people who use Claude all day. You get everything in Pro, plus 5x or 20x Pro's usage per 5-hour session, higher output limits, early access to new features and priority access at peak times. Both Max tiers get Fable at 50% of weekly limits. Max is billed monthly only. The Help Center says upgrading from 5x to 20x is prorated for the rest of the billing cycle.

Since October 7, 2026, Max also includes monthly Claude API credits: $100 on 5x and $200 on 20x. You link a Claude Console organization on claude.ai under Settings > Billing, after at least seven days on the plan. The credits cover the Claude API, Message Batches, the Console Playground, Claude Managed Agents and the Agent SDK. They don't cover interactive Claude Code, the Claude apps, usage credits or Claude on Bedrock, Vertex AI or Foundry. Unused credits expire at the end of each billing cycle.

Team ($20-$125 per seat)

Team is for organizations of 2 to 150 people. Standard seats ($25 monthly, $20/month billed annually) give more usage than Pro. Premium seats ($125 monthly, $100/month billed annually) give 5x the usage of a Standard seat and include Fable at 50% of weekly limits. You can mix seat types. Team adds SSO, domain verification, central billing, admin controls for connectors, usage analytics, enterprise search, project sharing, @Claude, Claude Cowork and Claude Motion (beta). By default, Anthropic doesn't train models on your content. Payment is by credit card only, with monthly or annual billing. Team doesn't include ACH, invoicing, SCIM, audit logs, role-based access or Claude Security.

Team plans also get pooled API credits: $20 per Standard seat and $100 per Premium seat each month, combined into one balance capped at $500/month. A Primary Owner or Owner claims them for the whole team after the plan has been active for seven days.

Enterprise ($20/seat + usage)

Enterprise uses a different pricing model. You pay a $20 per seat per month platform fee, billed annually, with a 20-seat minimum, and then pay for actual usage at API rates. Usage isn't capped by seat, so heavy users cost more and light users cost less. Admins can set spend limits for individual users and for the whole organization. Enterprise adds role-based access, SCIM, audit logs, the Compliance API, custom data retention, IP allowlisting, network-level access control, a HIPAA-ready offering, inference hooks and Claude Security (beta). Self-serve Enterprise accepts credit cards and ACH. Sales-assisted contracts add invoicing with net terms, AWS Marketplace purchasing, trials and tiered incentives on committed spend. Enterprise plans don't include monthly API credits.

Education

The Education plan is sold to universities and covers students, faculty and staff at discounted rates, with dedicated API credits and a learning mode. There's no public price. Individual students can't buy it themselves. See Claude student discount for what students can actually get.

How Claude usage limits work

• Five-hour sessions: every plan's limit resets on a rolling five-hour window that starts with your first message.
• Weekly limits: paid plans also have a weekly limit across all models. The Help Center says it resets at a fixed time assigned to your account.
• One shared pool: Claude on web, desktop, mobile and Claude Code all draw from the same allowance. A long coding session leaves less for chat, and the reverse is also true.
• Model matters: larger models use your allowance faster. Fable has its own cap on Max and Team Premium (50% of weekly limits).
• Other caps: Anthropic says it may limit usage in other ways, such as weekly and monthly caps or model and feature limits, to manage capacity.

When you reach a limit, you can wait for the reset, upgrade, or turn on usage credits on Pro or Max. Usage credits are prepaid. You add funds under Settings > Usage, and extra usage is billed at standard API rates. You can set a monthly spending cap and turn on auto-reload. Credits usually don't expire, but in some jurisdictions, including Japan, credits bought from September 10, 2026 expire after six months. Max's included API credits can't pay for usage credits.

Worked cost examples

These examples use only the official list prices above. Tax isn't included.

1. Pro: monthly vs annual

Monthly: 12 x $20 = $240/year. Annual: $200/year, or $200 / 12 = $16.67 a month, which the pricing page rounds to $17. The annual plan saves $240 - $200 = $40, about 17%. You pay the $200 up front. If you switch from monthly to annual partway through a month, Anthropic credits your unused time toward the first annual invoice.

2. Pro plus usage credits vs Max 5x

Max 5x costs $100 - $20 = $80/month more than Pro. If you regularly buy more than $80 a month in usage credits on top of Pro, Max 5x costs the same or less. It also includes 5x Pro's allowance and $100 in API credits. If you only hit Pro's limit a few times a month, a small usage-credit top-up is usually cheaper than upgrading.

3. A 10-person team

Ten Standard seats billed annually cost 10 x $20 = $200/month, or $2,400/year. Billed monthly, they cost 10 x $25 = $250/month, or $3,000/year, so annual billing saves $600. A mix of 8 Standard and 2 Premium seats on annual billing costs (8 x $20) + (2 x $100) = $160 + $200 = $360/month ($4,320/year). The same mix billed monthly costs (8 x $25) + (2 x $125) = $200 + $250 = $450/month. The pooled API credits for that mix are (8 x $20) + (2 x $100) = $360/month, under the $500 cap.

4. Enterprise minimum and usage

The smallest Enterprise contract is 20 seats x $20 x 12 months = $4,800/year in seat fees. Usage is added on top at API rates. For example, if each of 20 users sends 2 million input tokens and receives 0.5 million output tokens on Sonnet 5.5 ($2 in / $10 out per million) in a month, each user costs (2 x $2) + (0.5 x $10) = $4 + $5 = $9. That's 20 x $9 = $180/month in usage. These volumes are only an illustration. Actual usage varies widely, so budget from a pilot.

5. What Max's API credits buy

At Sonnet 5.5 list prices, Max 5x's $100 in API credits covers 50 million input tokens ($100 / $2) or 10 million output tokens ($100 / $10). If you already spend about $100 a month on the Claude API for side projects, those credits offset most of Max 5x's $100 price. You still need the plan's chat and Claude Code allowance for it to make sense.

Which Claude plan should you choose?

• Occasional questions, writing help, light research: Free.
• Daily use, Claude Code on small projects, Opus access: Pro. Pay annually if you're sure you'll keep it.
• Claude all day, or long Claude Code sessions in large codebases: Max 5x. Move to 20x only if you regularly hit 5x limits.
• Shared billing, SSO and admin controls for 2-150 people: Team. Give Premium seats only to heavy users.
• Compliance needs (SCIM, audit logs, HIPAA), or more than 150 people: Enterprise. Budget for usage on top of the $20 seat fee.
• Building your own app on Claude: the API, billed per token. See Claude API pricing and how to get an Anthropic API key.

Ways to pay less

• Annual billing: about 17% off Pro and 20% off Team Standard and Premium seats.
• Start on Free: there's no standard Pro trial. Our Claude free trial guide explains guest passes and other legitimate options.
• Open-source maintainers: Anthropic's program offers six months of Max 20x to qualifying maintainers. See Claude for Open Source.
• Startups: API credits and perks through Anthropic's Claude for Startups program.
• Nonprofits and scientists: the API credits article lists discounted Team plans for nonprofits and scientists, with the same credit amounts per seat.
• More options: our roundup of free AI credits covers routes across providers.

Claude vs ChatGPT and Google AI plans

Competitor prices come from our ChatGPT pricing and Google AI plans pricing pages, verified on the same date. Claude's standout is that every paid plan includes a full coding agent (Claude Code). If coding is your main use, also compare Cursor and OpenAI Codex, which are covered on our Claude Code pricing page.

Billing, tax, upgrades and cancellation

• Tax: prices exclude applicable tax, such as VAT or sales tax, which is added at checkout based on your location.
• Mobile: the Help Center says mobile prices may differ by app platform. On Google Play, an upgrade charges the full new price and turns unused value into extra days.
• Upgrades: take effect immediately, and unused time is credited. When the leftover value exceeds one period of the new plan (for example, Pro annual to Max 5x monthly), the excess is stored as account credit.
• Downgrades: take effect at the end of the billing period. Your chats, projects and files stay with your account.
• Cancelling: go to Settings > Billing > Cancel at least 24 hours before renewal. App Store and Google Play subscriptions are cancelled in those stores. After the period ends, Pro and Max accounts move to Free. Cancelling doesn't delete your data.
• Refunds: generally non-refundable. EEA and UK users have a 14-day withdrawal right. Others can request a review through Get help > Claude Refund Request.

Buy only from claude.com, the Claude apps or the official app stores. Those are the channels Anthropic's billing, cancellation and refund help covers.