Anthropic · Beginner · 8 lessons · about 81 minutes · updated 2026-09-04
Claude 101: The Complete Beginner's Course (Pricing-First)
Everything Anthropic's own Claude 101 teaches — plus what each plan and model actually costs, and the cheapest way to get the same result.
For people who have heard of Claude, may have tried the free app, and want to understand the product, the plans and the API well enough to pay for exactly what they need and nothing more.
Course outline
- 1What is Claude?Claude is Anthropic's family of AI models and the app built on them. This lesson explains what it does, what it is unusually good at, where it falls down, and what you actually pay for.8 min · 3 objectives
- 2Fable, Opus, Sonnet and Haiku explainedClaude ships as a ladder of models at very different prices. Learn what each tier is for, how context windows work, and a one-line rule for picking the right one.10 min · 3 objectives
- 3Pricing and plans: Free, Pro, Max, Team and the APIEvery way to pay for Claude in one place, with a break-even test that tells you whether a subscription or the API is the overpayment for your usage.11 min · 3 objectives
- 4Getting started: your first 15 minutes with ClaudeSet up the app the way experienced users do — the model menu, projects, styles, thinking and memory — and finish a real task before the free-tier limit becomes a question.9 min · 3 objectives
- 5Prompting Claude: the basics that actually matterClaude responds to clear structure, explicit format and honest context. Three before-and-after examples show the difference, plus the two Claude-specific tricks worth knowing.10 min · 3 objectives
- 6Five everyday workflows and what each costsWriting, research, coding, data and planning — the five things most people use Claude for, set up the efficient way, with a frank note on whether the free tier covers each one.12 min · 3 objectives
- 7API quickstart: your first call and what it costsWhen the API beats the app, how to make your first call in curl and Python, how tokens are billed, and the two features — caching and batch — that cut the bill before you write real code.11 min · 3 objectives
- 8Cost control: the cheapest way to get the same resultModel routing, caching, batching, effort settings and the plan-audit habit — the lessons buyers learn after their first surprising invoice, in one place.10 min · 3 objectives
Frequently asked
Is Claude free to use?
Yes. Claude.ai has a free tier with daily usage limits that reset over time. It is enough to learn the product and handle light daily use. Pro removes most of the friction for daily users.
What is the difference between Claude Pro and Claude Max?
Both unlock the same models. Max is a much higher usage allowance for people who hit Pro's limits every day, plus priority access during busy periods. If you never see a limit warning on Pro, Max is an overpayment. At the time of writing Pro is $20 a month and Max starts at $100 a month.
Which Claude model should I use?
Sonnet for almost everything, Haiku when speed and volume matter more than depth, Opus for hard reasoning and long agentic work, and Fable only when correctness on the hardest problems is worth paying double the Opus rate. Lesson 2 has the decision table.
Is the Claude API cheaper than a subscription?
For bursty or automated use, usually yes. For heavy daily chat, usually no. Lesson 3 gives you the break-even test, and the AI Cost Calculator runs it with live prices.
Does Claude remember my conversations?
Inside the Claude app, projects and memory features carry context between chats. The API is stateless: it remembers nothing between calls unless you send the history again, which is exactly why cost control matters in lesson 8.
Where do the prices in this course come from?
The price ladders and the plan cards are drawn from the OverpayingForAI catalogue, the same data behind the AI Pricing Tracker. Prose figures are marked 'at the time of writing' and reviewed with the rest of the site.