Claude Pro costs $20 a month, or $17 a month if you pay $200 up front for the year; Max starts at $100 a month; Free is $0. Anthropic’s pricing page (read 29 Sep 2026, prices before tax) sells usage rather than features: every plan has a usage limit that resets every five hours, and paid plans add weekly limits on top. If you hit the Free limit regularly, Pro is the step to consider. Max is for people who use Claude, including Claude Code, all day.
What each plan includes
| Plan | Price | Usage, per the page | Notable inclusions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Everyday questions | Sonnet and Haiku models, web search, files and code execution, memory, artifacts, up to 5 projects |
| Pro | $20 monthly, $17 annual ($200 up front) | At least 5x Free per five-hour session | Adds Opus, Claude Code, Research, Claude Design, Slides and Docs, Claude in Chrome, Microsoft 365, unlimited projects |
| Max 5x | $100, monthly only | 5x Pro per session | Higher output limits, priority access at busy times, early access to features |
| Max 20x | $200, monthly only | 20x Pro per session | As Max 5x |
Team and Enterprise are priced per seat and not covered here. The page shows Enterprise at $20 a seat plus usage at API rates.
How the limits work
There is no fixed message count. The page says usage depends on the length and complexity of conversations, the model chosen and the features used, and that web, desktop, mobile and Claude Code all draw from one pool. When you hit a limit you can wait for the reset, upgrade, or (on paid plans) turn on usage credits, which continue at standard API rates. Anthropic also reserves the right to add weekly or monthly caps.
Models by plan
Sonnet and Haiku are on every plan; Opus starts at Pro. A further model listed as “Fable” is available on Pro through usage credits and at 50 percent of weekly limits on Max. The context window is “up to 1M, varies by model” on all plans.
Who it suits, who should skip
- Stay on Free for occasional questions; it includes web search, file creation and memory.
- Pro suits people who need Opus, Research or Claude Code alongside chat; the annual price saves $40 against twelve monthly payments ($240 against $200).
- Max only makes sense if you regularly exhaust Pro’s limit; check Settings > Usage before paying five times as much.
- Look elsewhere if you want built-in image generation: the page lists none. See ChatGPT and Gemini, or the image generator guide. Head to head: ChatGPT vs Claude.
Privacy
Every plan shows model training as opt-out. Check the setting after signing up.
What this page cannot tell you
Writing quality, accuracy and how far a Pro session actually goes are not on a pricing page, and we have not assessed them. Earlier versions of this review called Claude the best for writing; we could not source that and removed it.
Method
Researched from Anthropic’s pricing page, read 29 Sep 2026 (USD, before tax) and Anthropic’s Max plan help article for the Max prices. In a Dutch session the same page displays regional euro prices (Pro EUR 15 a month annual or EUR 18 monthly, Max from EUR 90); the dollar figures above are the ones quoted. Nothing here comes from using the product.