Claude is an AI assistant made by Anthropic, a US AI safety company founded in 2021. It’s one of the most capable AI assistants available today — used by millions of people for writing, research, coding, analysis, and everyday problem-solving. If you’ve heard people talking about it and want to know what it actually is and whether it’s worth using, this guide covers everything.
Who Makes Claude?
Claude is made by Anthropic, an AI safety company founded by former OpenAI researchers including Dario Amodei and Daniela Amodei. Anthropic’s focus is on building AI that is safe, reliable and interpretable — which shapes how Claude is designed. It tends to be more careful, more honest about its limitations, and less likely to make things up than some alternatives.
What Can Claude Do?
Claude is a general-purpose AI assistant. The main things people use it for:
- Writing and editing — drafting emails, reports, articles, documentation, and marketing copy
- Research and summarisation — reading long documents and extracting the key points
- Coding — writing, reviewing and debugging code across most programming languages
- Analysis — working through data, spreadsheets, or complex problems step by step
- Answering questions — explaining technical concepts, looking up information, giving advice
- Brainstorming — generating ideas, plans, and creative content
Which Version of Claude is Latest?
Anthropic releases Claude in named families. As of 2026, the current models are:
- Claude Opus 4 — the most capable model, designed for complex, multi-step tasks
- Claude Sonnet 4 — the best balance of performance and speed, the most commonly used
- Claude Haiku — the fastest, lightest model, good for simple tasks and high-volume use
For most everyday use, Sonnet is the right choice. Opus is best when you need deeper reasoning on complex problems.
How Does Claude Compare to ChatGPT?
Both are capable AI assistants but with different strengths. Claude tends to produce longer, more nuanced responses and is often preferred for writing tasks. It’s also generally better at following detailed instructions precisely. ChatGPT has a larger plugin and integration ecosystem. See our full comparison: Claude AI vs ChatGPT — Which is Better?
Is Claude Free?
Yes — Claude has a free tier at claude.ai that gives access to Claude Sonnet with daily usage limits. The paid Pro plan (around £18/month) removes limits, adds priority access, and unlocks the more powerful Opus model. For most casual users the free tier is sufficient to get started. See our full breakdown: Claude Free vs Paid — Which Plan Do You Need?
How Do You Access Claude?
There are several ways:
- Web browser — go to claude.ai and sign up for a free account
- Mobile app — Claude has iOS and Android apps
- API — developers can integrate Claude into their own applications via the Anthropic API
- Claude Code — a command-line tool for developers that brings Claude directly into your coding workflow. See: What is Claude Code?
What Makes Claude Different?
A few things stand out about Claude compared to other AI assistants:
- Long context window — Claude can read and work with very long documents (up to 200,000 tokens, roughly 150,000 words) in a single conversation
- Honesty — Claude is designed to say when it doesn’t know something rather than confidently making things up
- Instruction following — it’s particularly good at following detailed, structured prompts
- Writing quality — consistently produces clear, well-structured prose
Is Claude Good for Business Use?
Yes — Anthropic offers a Claude for Teams plan that gives multiple users shared access with higher limits, and an Enterprise plan for larger organisations needing custom security, compliance and integration requirements. Many businesses use Claude for document processing, customer communication drafting, and internal knowledge management.
