As of October 2026, Claude has a free plan, Pro at $20 a month (or $17 a month billed annually at $200 up front), and Max at $100 a month for 5x usage or $200 a month for 20x usage, all in US dollars. Teams pay per seat: $25 a month for a Standard seat billed monthly, or $20 a seat billed annually. Developers pay separately for the API by the million tokens.
I get asked about Claude's prices more than any other AI tool right now, mostly by small business owners trying to work out whether Pro is enough or whether they need Max. The short answer is that most people should start on Pro. The longer answer depends on how many hours a day you'll spend in it and whether you'll use Claude Code.
Claude plans and prices at a glance
These are the prices Anthropic shows on its own pricing page, in US dollars, as of October 2026. Anthropic notes that prices don't include applicable tax.
| Plan | Price | Billing | Who it's for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | No card needed | Trying Claude for everyday questions |
| Pro | $20 a month, or $17 a month with annual billing ($200 up front) | Monthly or annual | Everyday work, including Claude Code |
| Max 5x | $100 a month | Monthly only | People who use Claude for hours a day |
| Max 20x | $200 a month | Monthly only | Heavy daily users and long coding sessions |
| Team, Standard seat | $25 a seat a month, or $20 billed annually | Monthly or annual | Teams of 2 to 150 |
| Team, Premium seat | $125 a seat a month, or $100 billed annually | Monthly or annual | Team members who need 5x a Standard seat |
| Enterprise | $20 a seat a month plus usage at API rates | Annual only, 20 seat minimum | Large businesses |
What Pro gets you over the free plan
The free plan is more generous than most people expect. Anthropic lists web, desktop and mobile chat, web search, file creation, memory, connectors and Artifacts on Free. What you pay for on Pro is more usage and more of the toolkit.
- More usage. Anthropic says Pro gives you at least 5x more usage per five-hour session than Free.
- Claude Code, which Anthropic says is included in all paid plans and shares the same usage pool as your chats.
- Projects without the five-project cap that Free has.
- More Claude models, plus Claude in Chrome and Claude for Microsoft 365.
- Research, scheduled tasks and the Dashboards beta.
If you only use Claude a few times a week for emails and summaries, Free may be all you need. My guide on whether Claude is free covers exactly where the free limits bite.
Pro or Max: how to choose
Here's the detail most comparison posts miss. Max isn't a smarter Claude. Anthropic's help centre describes Max 5x as five times the Pro plan's per-session usage allowance, and Max 20x as twenty times. Both Max tiers are billed monthly only, and Anthropic says it doesn't offer standard discounted pricing on Pro or Max.
Every plan's limits reset on a rolling five-hour window, and paid plans add weekly limits on top. Anthropic says there's no fixed message count, because usage depends on conversation length, the model and the features you use.
- Start on Pro for a full month and do your normal work in it, including any Claude Code sessions.
- Open Settings, then Usage, to see how close you get to each limit. Anthropic says you can check this at any time.
- If you hit the five-hour limit most days, move to Max 5x. Upgrades take effect straight away and unused Pro time is credited.
- Only consider Max 20x if Max 5x still runs out regularly.
One more thing worth knowing: Max now includes monthly API credits. Anthropic lists $100 a month on Max 5x and $200 a month on Max 20x for building on the Claude Platform.
Claude for teams and businesses
The Team plan is for 2 to 150 people. You can mix Standard and Premium seats, and Anthropic lists single sign-on, central billing, admin controls and no model training on your content by default. Team also includes up to $500 a month in pooled API credits.
Enterprise works differently. Anthropic prices it at $20 per seat per month plus usage billed at API rates, billed annually, with a 20 seat minimum. That means the bill grows with how much your team uses Claude, so it pays to set spend limits from day one.
Developers who code with Claude often weigh it against Cursor, whose tiers are in the Cursor plans guide.
Claude API pricing
If you're building your own tools, the API is billed per million tokens (MTok), separately from the chat plans. These are Anthropic's listed standard rates as of October 2026:
Want AI doing the heavy lifting in your marketing?
I build the systems that handle the boring 80 percent, so you get your week back. Done properly, with the human kept in.
| Model | Input | Output |
|---|---|---|
| Fable 5.1 | $10 / MTok | $50 / MTok |
| Opus 5.5 | $4 / MTok | $20 / MTok |
| Sonnet 5.5 | $2 / MTok | $10 / MTok |
| Haiku 5.5 (prompts up to 100K tokens) | $0.10 / MTok | $0.50 / MTok |
Anthropic also lists cheaper batch processing, prompt caching and web search at $10 per 1,000 searches. For a comparison with other coding tools, see Claude Code vs GitHub Copilot.
Refunds, cancelling and annual billing
Anthropic says payments are generally non-refundable, except where its consumer terms or local law say otherwise. If you're in the UK or the European Economic Area and within your 14-day withdrawal period, you can request a refund in the app. Cancel at least 24 hours before your renewal date to avoid the next charge, and your plan stays active until the end of the period.
If you subscribed through the App Store, Apple handles refunds. If you're paying monthly for Pro and know you'll stay, switching to annual in Settings, then Billing, credits your unused time to the first annual invoice.
My verdict
For most small business owners, Claude Pro is the plan to buy. It's the cheapest way to get Claude Code and the full toolkit, and you can see your real usage before spending more. Move to Max only when the usage page shows you hitting limits most days, and treat Team as the point where you need shared billing and admin controls, not just more messages.
ChatGPT's plans are broken down in ChatGPT Plus plans and prices if you're choosing between the two.
Frequently asked questions
How much is Claude Pro a month?
As of October 2026, Anthropic lists Claude Pro at $20 a month billed monthly, or $17 a month with annual billing, which is $200 billed up front. Prices are in US dollars and exclude tax.
How much does Claude Max cost?
Anthropic's help centre lists Max 5x at $100 per month and Max 20x at $200 per month. Max is a monthly subscription only.
Is Claude Code included in Claude Pro?
Yes. Anthropic says Claude Code is included in all paid plans and shares the same usage limits as your chats.
Does Claude offer a discount on Pro or Max?
Anthropic says it doesn't offer standard discounted pricing for individual plans, apart from the lower monthly rate when you pay for Pro annually.
