Current as of October 14, 2026. Prices and screens change often, so check the official pricing page for current numbers before you pay for anything.
In Part 1 we covered what Claude does well and where to be careful. Now let’s actually start. By the end of this post you’ll have signed up, picked a plan, checked your privacy setting, and had three first conversations, in about 15 minutes. One note: this guide has no screenshots. The interface changes often, so I describe menus by name, which still works after a redesign.
1. What You Need
- An email address, or a Google or Apple account
- A web browser (the web version is plenty at first)
- About 15 minutes. Starting on Free requires no payment details.
2. Signing Up
- Go to claude.ai in your browser.
- On the sign-in screen, choose Continue with Google, Continue with Apple, or Continue with email. There’s also an SSO button, but that’s for organizations that use single sign-on, so individuals can ignore it.
- Follow the on-screen steps. You may be asked to confirm your email or complete extra verification; which steps appear depends on your country and the time you sign up.
- When you finish, you land on a screen with a chat box. Unless you paid for something, you start on the Free plan.
The sign-in page also links to a desktop app, and there are iOS and Android apps. Sign in with the same account and you can pick up anywhere. Remember which sign-in method you used (Google, Apple, or email). A different method can look like a separate account. And if you plan to use work materials, check first whether your employer has an AI usage policy.
3. Choosing a Plan
The table below reflects the official pricing page as shown on October 14, 2026. Your local price and taxes may differ, so treat it as a guide.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Chat on web, desktop, and mobile; web search; file creation and code execution; memory; connectors; artifacts; up to 5 projects. Claude Code is not included. |
| Pro | $18/month billed annually ($220 upfront), or $22 billed monthly | Everything in Free, plus more usage, Claude Code, research, and more models (including Opus) |
| Max | From $110/month | Everything in Pro, plus a choice of 5x or 20x Pro’s usage and higher output limits |
Usage limits matter too. Every plan has a usage limit that resets in 5-hour windows, and paid plans add a weekly limit. Activity on the web, desktop, mobile, and in Claude Code all draws from the same pool, and long, complex conversations (and your choice of model and features) use it up faster. If you hit the limit, you can wait for the reset, move to a higher plan, or on paid plans turn on usage credits to keep going at standard API rates. You can see how much you’ve used under Settings > Usage (per the official pricing FAQ).
How to choose (my recommendation)
- If you’re new, try Free for a week or two. It’s enough to see whether this fits your work.
- If you keep hitting limits, or want research and more models, consider Pro.
- Claude Code, which we use in Parts 8 to 10, isn’t available on Free, so you’ll need Pro or higher by then. You can decide at that point.
- Max is built for people who use Claude all day, so it’s unlikely you need it at the beginner stage.
4. Check Your Privacy Setting First
Whether your conversations can be used to improve the model is something you control in settings. Check it before you start.
- Open your account (profile) menu and go to Settings. (It’s usually at the bottom left.)
- Under Privacy, find the option about using your chats to improve the model. In English it’s generally shown as “Help improve Claude.”
- Turn it off if you don’t want that.
Three things to know:
- Turning it off applies to new chats going forward. Data already included in training, or training that has already started, can’t be undone.
- This applies to consumer plans such as Free, Pro, and Max. Team, Enterprise, and API usage have separate policies.
- The setting is per account, so if you have more than one, check each.
Menu names and locations can change, so also see the official article, How do I change my model improvement privacy settings?. And however you set it, the rule from Part 1 stands: never enter passwords, card numbers, or customers’ personal data.
5. Learn the Screen
- The chat box: where you type. You’ll attach files here too (Part 4).
- New chat and chat history: a new chat doesn’t remember earlier ones (Part 1). To continue a topic, reopen the earlier chat from your history.
- Projects: a way to keep related chats and materials together. Free allows up to 5 (Part 7).
- Model selection: available models depend on your plan. Per the pricing table, Free includes Sonnet and Haiku, while Pro and above add Opus, and the model you pick affects how fast you use your allowance.
- Settings (account menu): privacy and usage are in here.
6. Three First Conversations (10 Minutes)
Enter these in order, in the same chat. Replace anything in brackets with your own situation.
1) I work as [your job or industry] and I’m new to AI. Suggest three easy tasks I could try today, and give me an example sentence for how to ask for each.
2) Summarize the text below in three lines. [paste a text that’s fine to share]
3) Explain your last answer again in simpler words, so a middle schooler could follow it.
The third one shows the core skill: staying in the same chat and refining the answer. We’ll go deeper on that next time.
7. When Things Go Wrong
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| No verification email or prompt arrives | It went to spam, or the address has a typo | Check spam and the address you typed, and try signing in with Google or Apple. If it keeps failing, contact official support. |
| A usage limit message appears | You reached the 5-hour usage limit | Check Settings > Usage and wait for the reset. If it happens often, review your plan. |
| The app and web show different chats | You may have signed in with a different method and created a separate account | Confirm you used the same account and sign-in method as when you signed up. |
| Billing or refund questions | Subscription issues | Contact official support with your account details. |
8. How We Use It: Limits Are Shared
This blog’s automated publishing also runs on a Claude subscription account. As noted above, web chats and Claude Code share one usage pool, so once you start running automation, it can affect how much you have left for everyday chat. That’s why we check Settings > Usage from time to time after starting automation. We’ll return to this in Parts 9 and 10.
9. Summary and What’s Next
- Sign up at claude.ai with Google, Apple, or email, and start on Free.
- Before you begin, check the model-improvement option under Settings > Privacy. Turning it off applies to new chats going forward.
- Limits reset in 5-hour windows and all activity shares one pool. Check Settings > Usage.
In Part 3, we’ll practice writing prompts that get much better answers from the same question, comparing weak and strong requests side by side.