Claude has five main plans. Free costs $0. Pro costs $20 a month, or $17 a month billed yearly. Max costs $100 a month for five times Pro's usage per session, or $200 for twenty times. Team starts at $25 per seat a month, or $20 billed yearly. Enterprise charges $20 per seat a month, billed yearly, plus usage at API rates.
I wrote on LinkedIn on September 23 that Claude is my daily driver again, after Opus 5.5 launched at the level of Fable 5.1 on most work, 40% cheaper to run than Opus 5 in Anthropic's tests and 20% cheaper per token. The obvious next question is which plan to pay for. Here is my answer, plan by plan, from running Growth Cab on Claude every day.
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“Opus 5.5 and Sol 6 launched together. It wasn't close.”
Claude Pricing at a Glance
| Plan | Price | Usage | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Limited | Trying Claude |
| Pro | $20 a month, or $17 billed yearly | Pro baseline | One person, daily work |
| Max 5x | $100 a month | 5x Pro per session | Heavy daily use |
| Max 20x | $200 a month | 20x Pro per session | All-day agents and coding |
| Team standard seat | $25 a month, or $20 billed yearly | More than Pro | Teams of 2 to 150 |
| Team premium seat | $125 a month, or $100 billed yearly | 5x a standard seat | Heavy users in a team |
| Enterprise | $20 a seat billed yearly, plus usage at API rates | Pay for what you use | Large companies |
| API | Per million tokens | Pay as you go | Software and agents |
Three details change the real price. Max is billed monthly only, while Pro and Team get a discount for paying yearly. Anthropic notes that Max prices are for web subscriptions and can differ in the mobile apps. And US prices exclude tax, while some other regions include it in the displayed price and others add it at checkout.
Is Claude Free?
Yes. The Free plan lets anyone chat with Claude on the web, desktop and mobile, search the web, create files, run code, keep memory across conversations and connect apps. The catch is usage: limits are tight, and the Opus and Fable models are not included. Free is the right way to test Claude before you pay. It is too limited to work on all day.
What Do You Get With Claude Pro?
Pro costs $20 a month, or $17 a month when you pay $200 for the year up front. It adds more usage, the Opus models, Claude Code, Research, more projects than Free's five, Claude Science, and Claude in Chrome and Microsoft 365. For one person doing knowledge work every day, it is the plan I would start with.
Pro limits run on two clocks: a five-hour session and a weekly limit across all models, which resets at a fixed time for your account. Anthropic raised the five-hour limits on Pro, Max and Team when Opus 5.5 launched on September 22.
Pro has one gap worth knowing. Fable 5 and Fable 5.1, the priciest models in the Claude apps, sit outside the Pro limits and run on usage credits from the first message. If Fable is the model you want for your hardest work, budget for credits on top of the $20, or look at Max.
Claude Max: When $100 or $200 Is Worth It
Max is for people who hit Pro's limits. Max 5x costs $100 a month and gives five times Pro's usage per five-hour session. Max 20x costs $200 and gives twenty times. Both carry a weekly limit, add priority access at high traffic times, and let you spend up to half of the weekly limit on Fable models at no extra cost.
The multipliers apply per five-hour session, and the weekly limit is a separate number Anthropic does not publish. My guide to Claude Max usage limits explains how the two clocks work and how to test whether 5x or 20x pays off for your work.
Claude Team and Enterprise Pricing
Team is for groups of 2 to 150 people. A standard seat costs $25 a month, or $20 billed yearly, and gives more usage than Pro. A premium seat costs $125, or $100 billed yearly, and gives five times a standard seat. You can mix the two, so only your heaviest users need the expensive seat.
Team adds what a company needs around the model: central billing, single sign-on, admin controls for connectors and no training on your content by default. Premium seats get Fable inside their limits, like Max. Standard seats pay for Fable with usage credits, like Pro.
Enterprise charges $20 per seat a month, billed yearly, plus usage at API rates, so the bill grows with the work. It adds SCIM, audit logs, a compliance API, role-based permissions, custom data retention and a HIPAA-ready offering. It makes sense when security reviews and procurement decide the purchase.
Claude Plans vs the Claude API
Use a plan when people work with Claude, and the API when software does. A plan gives a person a flat price with usage limits. The API has no monthly fee and bills every token. Per million tokens, input and output cost $1 and $5 on Haiku 4.5, $2 and $10 on Sonnet 5.5, $4 and $20 on Opus 5.5, and $10 and $50 on Fable 5.1. The Batch API halves both.
My breakdown of Claude API pricing covers every model, prompt caching, the Batch API and what a real agent session costs.
Claude vs ChatGPT Pricing
| Tier | Claude | ChatGPT |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 |
| Individual | Pro: $20 a month, or $17 billed yearly | Plus: $20 a month, monthly billing only |
| Heavy individual | Max: $100 or $200 a month | Pro: $100, $200 or $500 a month |
| Team standard seat | $25 a month, or $20 billed yearly | Business: $25 a month, or $20 billed yearly |
| Team premium seat | $125 a month, or $100 billed yearly | Business: $125 a month, or $100 billed yearly |
List prices match at $20, $100 and $200, and on team seats. OpenAI also sells a low-cost Go plan and Pro 500, its fastest tier, and its Pro plans and Business premium seats have no five-hour limit, while Claude keeps one. Claude Pro includes Claude Code and ChatGPT Plus includes Codex. Paying yearly for Claude Pro costs $200 instead of $240.
For a side-by-side of models, limits and data rules, read my comparison of Claude vs ChatGPT for business.
Which Claude Plan Should You Pick?
- Free, to test Claude on your own work before paying.
- Pro, for one person working with Claude every day, including Claude Code.
- Max 5x, when Pro limits interrupt work that matters or you need Fable inside the plan.
- Max 20x, when 5x sessions still hit the five-hour wall on long agent or coding runs.
- Team, as soon as two or more people need shared billing, single sign-on and admin controls.
- Enterprise, when compliance, audit logs and procurement decide the purchase.
- The API, when software calls Claude, with spend you can meter.
My own rule is simple. Start one tier lower than you think, log a week of real work, and upgrade only when the limit stops a job that pays. Most people buy the plan for the busiest day they imagine. The bill should follow the busiest week they actually have.
How to Pay Less for Claude
Pay yearly when you are sure: Pro drops from $20 to $17 a month and a Team standard seat from $25 to $20. Make Opus 5.5 your default and keep Fable for the hardest jobs, because Fable is capped at half of the Max weekly limit. Turn on usage credits with a spend limit before you jump a tier for a few busy days. Anthropic offers no standing discounts, only occasional promotions.
Before you upgrade, test the plan on representative work with the scoring sheet in my guide to evaluating AI models, so the decision rests on accepted jobs instead of a feeling.
Every Thursday, AI Frontier gives B2B operators one verified signal, my read on it and one practical AI revenue play in under five minutes. The original post and discussion are on LinkedIn. If you are torn between two Claude plans, tell me the job you need it for and I will tell you which one I would buy.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Claude cost?
Claude Free costs $0. Pro costs $20 a month, or $17 a month billed yearly. Max costs $100 or $200 a month. Team costs $25 per seat a month, or $20 billed yearly, with premium seats at $125 or $100. Enterprise charges $20 per seat billed yearly plus usage at API rates.
Is Claude free to use?
Yes. The Free plan includes chat on the web, desktop and mobile, web search, file creation, code execution, memory and app connections. Usage limits are tight, and the Opus and Fable models require a paid plan.
How much is Claude Pro?
Claude Pro costs $20 a month in the US billed monthly, or $17 a month when you pay $200 for the year up front. Prices vary by region, and some regions include tax while others add it at checkout.
How much is Claude Max?
Claude Max 5x costs $100 a month and Max 20x costs $200 a month. Max is billed monthly only. The 5x and 20x refer to Pro's usage per five-hour session, and both tiers also have a weekly limit.
How much does Claude Team cost?
A Team standard seat costs $25 per month, or $20 billed yearly. A premium seat costs $125 per month, or $100 billed yearly, with five times the usage of a standard seat. Team is for groups of 2 to 150 people, and you can mix seat types.
Is Claude Code included in Claude Pro?
Yes. Anthropic lists Claude Code among the Pro features, and Pro and Max usage is shared between Claude and Claude Code. Anthropic suggests Max 5x if you keep hitting limits on larger code repositories.
