Big picture

Anthropic in 2 sentences

Anthropic is a San Francisco startup founded by former OpenAI folks, with a stated mission to build AI that is safe and useful. By 2026, that means 19 million active users and 70% of the Fortune 100 using Claude daily.

Claude, more than a chatbot

Most people know Claude through claude.ai, the chat in the browser. But Anthropic built more than ten products around the model: a mobile app, Projects, Artifacts, Claude Code working inside your terminal, a Cowork mode that drives your computer, a Chrome extension, scheduled Routines, an API, and an SDK for developers.

This guide covers the ten products that actually matter. Not a catalog, a journey.

The map

The ecosystem splits into three zones. Each one matches a level of maturity in how you use Claude.

To get started (chapters 2-3). Web and mobile chat on claude.ai, plus personalization. You learn how to talk to Claude, tell it who you are, and use web search and voice mode. Concrete example: you ask a question, Claude answers with cited sources.

To create and code (chapters 4-6). Projects and Artifacts to produce deliverables (an HTML presentation, a Markdown doc, a small interactive tool). Claude Design for visuals and slides. Claude Code to work on a real codebase from your terminal or IDE.

To automate and deploy everywhere (chapters 7-10). Cowork on desktop running autonomous tasks in the background, the Chrome extension, mobile apps with Dispatch, scheduled Routines (like a morning inbox summary), the API and Agent SDK to plug Claude into your own apps.

How to read this guide

Every chapter follows the same grid of four questions:

1. Who it's built for.
2. What you can actually do with it.
3. How much it costs and on which plan.
4. When to use it instead of another Claude product.

In which order to read

If you're starting from scratch, read in order: chapters 2 and 3 set the base, the rest you can pick based on what you need right now.