Claude

Claude is the assistant made by Anthropic. It runs in a browser, in desktop apps for macOS and Windows, on iOS and Android, and inside other tools through extensions for Chrome, Slack, Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Outlook and Google Workspace. The same account also reaches Claude Code for software work, Claude Design, Slides and Docs for documents, and Claude Science.

Anthropic sells Free, Pro, Max and Ultra plans to individuals and Team and Enterprise plans to organisations, and separately bills API use by tokens. Models are called Haiku, Sonnet and Opus, with a further tier named Fable that is paid from usage credits. A feature called Connectors links Claude to outside apps so it can read and act on work data.

• Claude Code. A coding agent that works from a terminal, VS Code, JetBrains, the desktop app or Slack. It is included from the Pro plan upward and is not part of the Free plan, according to the pricing comparison.
• Connectors and Skills. Connectors let Claude pull from tools such as Slack, Gmail, Google Calendar, Drive, Salesforce and Gong, and Skills package repeatable procedures. The vendor shows these in worked examples like a Monday report built from Amplitude and BigQuery data.
• Artifacts, Design, Slides and Docs. Claude can create Artifacts, and the page lists Claude Design, Slides and Docs as available on every individual plan, including Free. Files can be created and edited by running code in a sandbox.
• Research and web search. Web search is on all plans, while the Research mode is listed from Pro upward. The vendor shows it gathering sources across a task before returning a written result.
• Hand off and schedule tasks. Pro and above can hand a task to Claude and schedule it, for example reading transcripts after each meeting and posting action items to a channel. Free users do not get this feature.
• Projects and memory. Free is limited to up to five projects, and paid plans lift that. Memory works across conversations on all plans, and incognito chats are available too.
• Team and Enterprise administration. Team adds SSO, central billing, usage analytics and connector admin controls. Enterprise adds role-based access, SCIM, audit logs, a compliance API, custom data retention and a HIPAA-ready offering.

• A freelance analyst on the Pro plan. An analyst can use Projects for client files, Research for source gathering, and Claude in Excel for table work. The Pro plan at $17 per month on annual billing gives more usage than Free, and Claude Code is included.
• A 12-person product team on Team. A team can use standard seats at $20 per seat per month on annual billing, with shared projects, SSO and central admin. Heavy users can take premium seats with five times the usage, and mixed seat types are allowed.
• A regulated company evaluating Enterprise. A larger organisation can ask about audit logs, SCIM, custom retention, network-level access control, IP allowlisting and the HIPAA-ready offering. Seats are billed at US$20 per month plus usage at API rates, with a 20-seat minimum.

You can start on claude.ai or download the desktop app for macOS, Windows or Linux, or the iOS and Android apps, with a free account. The vendor says the apps are available to all plan types. A paid plan is chosen from the pricing page, where Pro offers monthly or annual billing.

Team is for 2 to 150 people and is created self-serve; Enterprise has a self-serve route and a sales-assisted route. Connectors are added in settings, and extensions install separately for Chrome, Slack, Excel, PowerPoint, Word and Outlook. Exporting your data happens under Settings > Privacy.

Anthropic sells Claude through Free, Pro and Max plans for individuals and per-seat Team and Enterprise plans.

Exit is better documented than elsewhere: Free, Pro and Max users can export chats from Settings, and consumer chats are used for training only when you allow it or they are flagged for safety review. Max is priced by multiples of Pro usage, and Free has no Claude Code.

Claude is entry #3 of 14 in the AI chatbots and assistants list: Perplexity sits directly above it and ChatGPT directly below. The first three places are reserved for challengers where a category has them, which is why we publish no numeric score.

North America is home to 6 of the 14 vendors, Claude among them (the United States).

Anthropic PBC gives a San Francisco address, and Anthropic Ireland, Limited contracts with consumers in Europe.

Pricing as recorded: Free, Pro and Max plans published; per-seat Team and Enterprise.

Prices exclude tax and may change at Anthropic's discretion. Free is $0. Pro is $17 per month on annual billing ($200 up front) or $20 billed monthly. Max is $100 per month with five times Pro usage and $100 of monthly API credits. Ultra is $200 per month with ten times Pro weekly usage and $200 of API credits. Team standard seats cost $20 (annual) or $25 (monthly), and premium seats $100 or $125. Enterprise is US$20 per seat per month billed annually, 20-seat minimum, plus usage at API rates. API example: Sonnet 5.5 at $2 input and $10 output per million tokens.

We took this from claude.ai, the vendor’s own site, when we reviewed Best AI Chatbots and Assistants in 2026; that review is dated 6 November 2026.

Individual users on Free, Pro, Max and Ultra can export their chats from Settings > Privacy; the download link arrives by email and expires after 24 hours. Team and Enterprise members can export if an owner enables it.

For commercial products, inputs and outputs are not used for training by default, and deleted chats leave backend storage within 30 days. Consumer plans show model training as opt-out. Anthropic's trust centre page could not be read in this check, and hosting region is not stated.

Integrations the vendor names (12):

• Slack
• Gmail
• Google Calendar
• Google Drive
• Salesforce
• Gong
• Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Outlook
• Chrome extension
• VS Code
• JetBrains
• Amplitude
• BigQuery

We pick the closest products in the same guide by tags, price model and region.

A full write-up exists: Claude alternatives, with reasons buyers leave and what moving involves.

• Mistral Le Chat (#1 of 14): Mistral's assistant has a Free plan, a Pro plan with $15 a month in API credits, and Team at $24.99 per user a month with data export and 30 GB storage per user. Enterprise mentions self-hosted, private cloud or on-premises deployment, which Claude's plans do not offer. Its standard Pro price was not clearly shown. Switch if you need a deployment option inside your own environment or a Team seat priced below Claude's Premium seat. (France)
• ChatGPT (#4 of 14): The closest like-for-like chat assistant from OpenAI, sold as a ladder from Free up to Business and Enterprise. We could not read its pricing or help pages (both refused our requests), so we quote no prices and no limits for it. Compare its current plan page against Claude's five-hour and weekly windows yourself. Switch if your colleagues already use it and you want a second opinion on its current plan page.
• Grok (#8 of 14): Sold as The X Subscription: Free, Plus $8 a month, Premium $30, Super $100 and Ultra $200, with included usage of 4x, 15x and 50x on the top three. Team seats exist from Premium at $30. The usage pool is shared with Cursor, and third-party models inside Cursor draw on credits from the first use. Switch if you also use Cursor or X and want one usage pool across them.
• Strawberry (#13 of 14): Strawberry is a desktop browser for macOS and Windows with AI companions for sales, marketing and recruiting work that run in your browser tabs. Its free plan gives 500 credits a month, then Intern is $20, Part-time $85 and Full-time $250, with credit top-ups. Per its own comparison page, paid plans can use Claude, GPT, Gemini and Grok models. It lists no mobile apps and recommends Claude for coding. Switch if your work is browser-based sales, marketing or recruiting tasks and you want an assistant that operates the sites you already use. (Sweden)

When Claude is still the right call: Claude remains a sound choice when you want published seat prices ($20 Team seat on annual billing, 2 to 150 seats), no model training by default on Team and Enterprise, and a self-service export on Free, Pro and Max. Enterprise adds SCIM, audit logs, a Compliance API and custom retention. If you rarely reach the five-hour window, the Pro plan at $17 a month on annual billing costs less than most paid rivals we could read.

Read from the vendor’s own pages on 5 November 2026.

• claude.com/pricing: Plans, prices, features, usage multiples, Team and Enterprise terms, API rates
• support.claude.com/en/articles/9450526-how-can-i-export-my-claude-data: Data export steps, link expiry, import limits
• privacy.claude.com/en/articles/7996868-is-my-data-used-for-model-training: Training default for commercial products, feedback
• privacy.claude.com/en/articles/7996866-how-long-do-you-store-my-data: Retention periods for deleted chats and API data
• claude.com/download: Desktop, mobile and extension availability
• claude.com/product/overview: Connectors and workflow examples

Four tests decide a position: how soon the product is useful, what the bill really becomes, how data leaves and who it suits. Claude ends up at #3 among 14. How vendor facts are sourced, and how money can and cannot influence a page, is in the editorial process.