What Claude is
Claude is a family of AI models from Anthropic, an American company, and the name of the assistant built on them. It came out as a chatbot in March 2023, and Anthropic sizes its models Haiku, Sonnet and Opus, from least to most capable, with a newer line called Mythos above them.
You can use it on the web, in desktop apps for macOS and Windows, and on iPhone and Android. The desktop app adds access to folders on your own computer. Anthropic folded its Cowork agent into the same app, so chatting and handing off tasks share one window.
What Claude is good for
- Writing and editing: write a first draft, change the tone or tighten what you already wrote.
- Reading long files: attach a Word, PDF, Excel or PowerPoint file and ask what it says, or what is missing.
- Finished documents: documents, slides, diagrams and small interactive tools open beside the chat as artifacts, and you can export them to Word or PDF.
- Ongoing work: a Project holds a job's files and instructions, so every new chat in it starts from them.
- Work across your apps: connectors reach tools such as Gmail, Slack and Google Drive.
- Coding: it writes and explains code in the chat, and Anthropic's separate Claude Code tool works from your terminal.
When to use Claude, and when to pick another tool
| Your job | Use Claude? | Or try |
|---|---|---|
| Writing, editing or summarizing everyday text | Yes, a good first stop | ChatGPT or Gemini |
| A long Word, PDF or Excel file to read | Yes, it reads all three, plus PowerPoint and images | NotebookLM, which quotes the passage behind each claim |
| A document or small tool you can edit and export | Yes, through artifacts | ChatGPT, which has a canvas for longer text |
| A report built from many web pages | Yes, but on a paid plan, because research mode needs one | Gemini or Perplexity, both with a free allowance |
| Building software in a project folder | For snippets in chat, yes | Claude Code, Cursor or GitHub Copilot |
| Files that must not leave your computer | No, uploads go to Anthropic | Ollama or LM Studio, which run on your own machine |
How to use Claude, step by step
Menu names follow Anthropic's own pages as read on 5 and 6 November 2026, and buttons move, so trust your own screen where it differs.
- Create an account. Go to claude.ai or install the app for macOS, Windows, iPhone or Android, then sign up and sign in. A new chat opens ready for a message.
- Type your request in the message box. Say what you want, who it is for and how long it should be, as you would brief a colleague.
- Add what Claude should work from. Use the + button in the message box to attach a document, a spreadsheet or an image, then ask about it.
- Choose how hard it thinks. The message box also holds the model menu, and Anthropic's own tutorial covers extended thinking and research mode for harder questions.
- Work on the artifact that opens beside the chat. Long, self-contained answers such as documents and small tools open in a panel. Ask for changes in the chat, or highlight text and click Edit with Claude. Export sends a document to Word, PDF, Markdown or Google Docs.
- Keep a recurring job in a Project. Click Projects in the sidebar, then + New Project. Click Set project instructions for the rules, and use the + in the knowledge base to add files.
- Check what Claude remembers. Open Settings, then Your Claude, and select Manage next to Your memory to edit or delete any topic.
Type your request in the message box in the middle of the home page. Say what you want, who it is for and how long it should be.
Press the + at the bottom left of the box to attach a document, a spreadsheet or an image. Then ask about it.
Open the document that appears beside the chat and press Export to send it to Word, PDF, Markdown or Google Docs.
Click Projects in the sidebar, then + New Project at the top right of the page to keep a recurring job in one place.
AI-made illustrations of Claude's screens, drawn on 6 November 2026 to match these steps. They are not screenshots, so the real app may look different: follow what you see.
The Claude Projects lesson sets up a project with instructions, knowledge and memory in five steps. The video tutorials at the top of this page show all of these steps on screen.
An example to try
Attach three sets of meeting minutes, or paste their text, then paste this prompt. It asks Claude to quote the line behind each flag, so you can check it against your own files.
I'm attaching the minutes of our last three team meetings.
List every decision, who owns it and the date it is due, in a table.
Flag any decision that two meetings handled differently, and quote the line from each one.
Then write a five-line summary I can paste into an email.- A table with one row per decision, with the owner and due date taken from the minutes.
- For any decision that changed between meetings, one quoted line from each, which you can find in the file in seconds.
- Where the minutes give no due date, you want a gap or a question, not an invented date.
Tips for better results
- Chats inside one Project do not share what was said in them, so write a settled decision into a knowledge file.
- Delete the old version from a project's knowledge when you upload a new one, because Claude uses every file there.
- Ask Claude to quote the passage behind a claim, then search for that line in your file.
- To stop it guessing, say so in the instructions: "If a fact is not in the files, ask me."
Plans, limits and privacy
Claude has a free plan, with Pro, Max, Ultra, Team and Enterprise plans above it. Projects come with every plan. Research, the mode that writes a report from many web pages, needs a paid one.
Anyone with the link to a shared chat can read it. In July 2026 the BBC counted more than 200 shared chats and artifacts in Google results, some holding health records and corporate documents, and Anthropic said it had removed the listings. Send a link only to people you would hand the document to. An incognito chat, from the ghost icon at the upper right, stays out of your history and memory.
In the desktop app, Claude can change files in a folder you give it. Anthropic says it asks before permanently deleting files by default, yet one early user reported that Cowork deleted every family photo while organizing his wife's desktop, and he restored them from an iCloud backup. Back up a folder before you let any agent work in it.
Learn more about Claude
- 2How to use Claude Projects, with artifacts and memoryLearn how to use Claude Projects: add knowledge files, set project instructions, export artifacts and control what Claude remembers between chats.
- 5Best AI for research in 2026: deep research tools, paper search and notebooks comparedCompare ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini Notebook, Microsoft Researcher and Elicit for research: free plans, prices, limits and what each reads.
- 2Which AI model should I use for my task?Which AI model should I use? Pick the assistant by your task and where your files live, then a fast or deep-thinking model, and test two on your own work.
Frequently asked questions
How many projects can I make on the free plan?
Up to five. Projects come with every plan, and a paid plan also gets retrieval mode, which keeps a large knowledge base usable.
What is the difference between Claude and Claude Code?
Claude is the assistant you chat with in a browser, an app or on a phone. Claude Code is Anthropic's coding agent, which works on your code from the terminal. Unless you write software, start with Claude.
What files can Claude read?
According to Anthropic's page, Word, PDF, plain text, Markdown, HTML, JSON, CSV, Excel and PowerPoint files, common image formats and code in most languages. Connectors can bring in more.
What happened to Claude Cowork?
It now lives inside Claude. Anthropic says Cowork and chat are integrated, and your chats, projects, artifacts, connectors and skills are where you left them.
Can I use Claude on my phone?
Yes, on iPhone and Android. On Pro, Max, Ultra and Team plans you can also start a task from your phone, and Claude keeps working in the cloud while your laptop is closed.
Should I use Claude or ChatGPT?
Run the meeting-minutes prompt above through both free plans and compare the answers line by line. Keep the one you could send without editing.
Sources
- Wikipedia: Claude (AI) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_(AI)
- Anthropic: Claude https://www.anthropic.com/claude
- Anthropic: What are projects? https://support.claude.com/en/articles/9517075-what-are-projects
- Anthropic: How can I create and manage projects? https://support.claude.com/en/articles/9519177-how-can-i-create-and-manage-projects
- Anthropic: What are artifacts and how do I use them? https://support.claude.com/en/articles/9487310-what-are-artifacts-and-how-do-i-use-them
- Anthropic: Use Claude's chat search and memory https://support.claude.com/en/articles/11817273-use-claude-s-chat-search-and-memory-to-build-on-previous-context
- Anthropic: Using Research on Claude https://support.claude.com/en/articles/11088861-using-research-on-claude
- Anthropic: Claude plans and pricing https://claude.com/pricing
- Anthropic on YouTube: Getting started with Claude.ai https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vZ_UVLhSQQ
- Google: Use Deep Research in Gemini Apps https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/15719111?hl=en
- Perplexity: What is Research mode? https://www.perplexity.ai/help-center/en/articles/10738684-what-is-research-mode
- Google: Add sources in Gemini Notebook https://support.google.com/gemininotebook/answer/16215270?hl=en
- Ollama: Quickstart https://docs.ollama.com/quickstart