Getting Started with Claude

The free plan is a working version of Claude, not a trial. Twenty minutes with the four controls that matter is the difference between a chat box you poke at and a tool you reach for when the work is long and wordy.

Most people open Claude, see a plain message box and a model name they do not recognise, and never find the plus button, the effort level or the memory list. Then they pay $20 a month for something the free account was already doing, or they paste a client's payroll file into a conversation that saves itself.

This walkthrough goes through the app in short lessons: what the free plan actually includes and what Pro buys, the four places on the screen, how to attach a 60-page PDF and what the page limits mean, the model menu and the effort dial beside it, what an artifact is and how to publish one as a link, the instructions Claude reads before every answer, and the topics it saves about you and how to edit them. Every price, plan, limit, model name and click path was read on Anthropic's own pages in October 2026.

You practise along the way: five things to find on your own screen, six real jobs to route to a model and an effort level, and a client's payroll file that has to be dealt with by Friday.

You walk away with an account that is set up, a document already put through it, and the three habits that keep it useful.

Who it's for

People who keep hearing "just use Claude": willing to try it, and wanting a tour before an afternoon disappears into guessing.

Anyone with long documents: contracts, reports, transcripts, terms. Reading a long thing properly is the job this course is built around.

Anyone handling client material: needs a clear line between what Claude should know about you and what should never be saved at all.