Claude's interface is deliberately plain: a chat box, a model picker and a sidebar of conversations. The power is in a handful of settings most people never open. This lesson walks through them in the order that pays off fastest.
Set-up in eight steps
- 1
Create an account
Go to claude.ai and sign up with email, Google or Apple. The free tier starts immediately; no card is needed.
- 2
Install the apps you will actually use
Desktop apps for macOS and Windows and mobile apps for iOS and Android are in the official download page. The desktop app adds a global shortcut and screen-reading, which is where it earns its place.
- 3
Pick your model
The model menu sits above the chat box. Free shows the current default; Pro adds the full ladder. Leave it on Sonnet for now — lesson 2 explains when to change it.
- 4
Turn on extended thinking for hard questions
The thinking toggle makes Claude reason before it answers. Leave it off for quick tasks: it uses more of your allowance and slows the response.
- 5
Create a Project
Projects hold files, a custom instruction and a set of chats. Anything you upload to a project is available to every chat inside it, so you stop re-pasting the same context.
- 6
Set a Style
Styles are saved writing instructions — formal, concise, explanatory, or your own. Set one once and every answer follows it.
- 7
Check memory and data settings
In Settings, review what Claude remembers across chats and whether your conversations may be used for training. Both are your call; both are one toggle.
- 8
Do a real task
Paste a document you actually need summarised — a contract, a report, meeting notes — and ask for a one-page brief with the three decisions it implies. Judge Claude on that, not on trivia.
Where the free-tier limit bites
The free tier counts messages in a rolling window, and long conversations count more because every turn re-reads the history. Three habits stretch it: start a new chat when the topic changes, put reference files in a project instead of pasting them every time, and ask for the length you need — "in five bullets" costs less than an open-ended "tell me about".
Claude Code, briefly
If you write software, Claude Code runs in your terminal and IDE, reads your repository, makes edits, runs tests and opens pull requests. It is included with Pro and Max, and it is the main reason Max exists. The Claude Code lessons live in the coding-AI guides on this site; this course stays with the app and the API.
Knowledge check
You keep pasting the same 30-page style guide into new chats. What is the fix?