Trusted Reviews is supported by its audience. If you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a commission. Learn more.

What is Claude? The AI explained

From Open AI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini to Microsoft’s Copilot and X’s Grok, there’s certainly no shortage of AI chatbots on the scene right now. 

If you’re looking for a chatbot to help you with complex tasks, translations, coding and more, you may have heard of Claude. 

Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about Claude.ai. 

What is Claude? 

Claude – or Claude.ai – is an AI chatbot service created by Anthropic. The service consists of three large language models and was first released in March 2023. 

Claude is capable of processing large amounts of information, performing complex cognitive tasks, brainstorming ideas and transcribing and analysing images, including handwritten notes, graphs and photos. It can also create websites in HTML and CSS, debug complex code bases, help you to understand subjects and translate between various languages in real time. 

The service consists of three AI models that offer different levels of speed and performance. 

Haiku is the fastest model, designed to execute lightweight requests as quickly as possible, while Opus offers the highest performance and is ideal for complex analysis, longer tasks with more steps and more advanced maths and coding tasks. Sonnet sits between the two, offering a more balanced combination of performance and speed. 

The latest version of Claude, Claude 3, was released in March 2024. 

Save £600 on the 55-inch LG B4 OLED TV

Save £600 on the 55-inch LG B4 OLED TV

Save £600 and get the LG B4 OLED Smart TV for just £999 from AO.

  • AO
  • Was £1599
  • Now £999
View Deal

Is Claude free to use? 

Claude currently offers three pricing plans: Free, Pro and Team. 

The most basic version of Claude is free to all users, though the features are more limited. You can use a Free account to chat with Claude on the web and iOS, ask questions about images and documents, and access Claude 3.5 Sonnet. 

If you’re happy to shell out $20 a month, Claude Pro includes everything in the Free plan as well as access to Claude 3 Opus and Haiku. The usage limit is higher with a Pro account and you’ll receive priority bandwidth and availability. This plan allows you to create Projects based around a set of documents, code or files, and you’ll also get early access to new features. 

For businesses, the Team plan offers everything including in Pro, along with higher usage limits and the ability to share chats amongst teammates. There’s also a central billing and admin system, with prices starting at $30 per person a month (for a minimum of five members).

Why trust our journalism?

Founded in 2003, Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy.

Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year.

author icon

Editorial independence

Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.

author icon

Professional conduct

We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.

Trusted Reviews Logo

Sign up to our newsletter

Get the best of Trusted Reviews delivered right to your inbox.

This is a test error message with some extra words