This chapter covers the simplest level of Claude: the chat on claude.ai and the mobile app.
Who it's for
Anyone who wants a working AI within reach. You ask, Claude answers. Like ChatGPT, but with a more nuanced tone and a real ability to say "I don't know" when it doesn't.
No need to be a developer, no credit card required. The free plan gives you the essentials. You can start tonight.
What you can do
Web and mobile chat. The interface on claude.ai in your browser, plus iOS and Android apps. Same history everywhere, so you pick up a desktop conversation on your phone during your commute.
Model picker. Sonnet 4.6 by default (balanced, fast), Haiku 4.5 for short answers and high-volume requests, Opus 4.7 for heavy reasoning or massive context. You switch models from the conversation menu.
Real-time web search with citations. Claude searches the web via Brave Search and cites its sources. Handy when you need to step outside pure memory and check a recent fact, a price, a piece of news.
Voice mode. You talk to Claude like a colleague. 20 languages, hands-free or push-to-talk. Good for walking, driving, or brainstorming without typing.
Memory across sessions. Claude remembers what you tell it from one conversation to the next. Your industry, your constraints, the tone you prefer. You stop starting from scratch every time.
1 million tokens of context. That's roughly 8 books in a single conversation. You can drop in a full report, a large legal doc, a long transcript, and keep chatting about it without Claude losing track.
How much it costs
- Free: chat, memory, web search, voice mode, 5 projects. Around 20 messages per day on Sonnet 4.6.
- Pro (~$20/month): 5x more messages, access to all three models (Sonnet 4.6, Haiku 4.5, Opus 4.7), artifacts and connectors (see next chapters).
- Max ($100 or $200/month): for power users who work with Claude all day long. Larger quotas and priority access to Opus 4.7.
When to use it vs. something else
The chat is for thinking, writing, brainstorming, querying a document. You stay in the conversation, you drive.
As soon as you want Claude to act on your local files or your codebase, move to Claude Code (dedicated chapter). And if you want to automate a recurring task in the background, check Routines and Agents later in this guide.
Start with the free plan. You'll know quickly whether Pro is worth it for you.