How to choose a Claude plan, step by step
- Start on the $20 a month plan. Sign up for the $20 a month plan on monthly billing. It is enough for most people getting started.
- Use Sonnet for everyday work. Sonnet is the efficient model. Save Opus and Fable for tasks that need them, since they use up your limit much faster.
- Watch for resets. If you regularly hit your limit and sit waiting for Claude to reset, the plan is too small for how you work.
- Upgrade to the $100 plan when you need it. The $100 a month plan costs five times more and gives you five times the usage. Heavy use usually means Claude is paying off in your business.
- Adjust month to month. On monthly billing you can upgrade for a busy month and downgrade for a light one, like when you are on vacation.
- Put employees on Claude Teams. If more than one person in the business uses Claude, set up the Teams plan for one bill, mixed plan levels, and shared skills.
The cheapest plan that works is the best plan
Ben gets this question every day, mostly from insurance agents asking what their agency needs to help with renewals, certificates, and ACORDs. The answer is always the same. The cheapest plan that works for you is the best plan.
Works for you has a specific meaning here. It means you are never sitting there waiting for Claude to reset. If you never hit that wall, you are on the right plan and there is nothing to gain by paying more.
How Claude's usage limits work
Claude gives you a set amount of usage every five hours and every week. Ben explains it with a car. Every five hours someone refills your tank, and it is up to you how much you drive before the next refill. If you use too much over the whole week, you either pay for more usage or move up a plan.
If all you do is run errands, like the grocery store and a stop at family, a few gallons every five hours feels unlimited. If you try to drive cross country on that same few gallons, you will run out quickly. That is the point where the next plan up makes sense.
The next level up is the $100 a month plan. It costs five times more than the $20 plan and gives you five times more usage, five times more gas per fill up.
The model you pick burns fuel at different rates
It is not only how much you use Claude but how you use it. Driving hard up a mountain burns more gas than cruising the highway, and the same is true of Claude's models.
Sonnet is efficient, like a regular car such as a Mini Cooper or a Jetta. Opus is a big family SUV that uses roughly double the gas. Fable is a cargo ship. It is not even on the road, and you will run out of fuel very fast with it. For everyday work, Sonnet stretches your limit the furthest.
Ben's recommendation is to start with the $20 a month plan. If you find yourself using it a lot, that usually means Claude is helping your business, so upgrade to the $100 a month plan. On monthly billing you can switch up to the $100 or $200 plan for a busy month and back down for a light one.
Claude Teams for businesses with staff
If you are giving Claude to employees, Ben recommends the Claude Teams plan. It needs a minimum of two seats, so it works even for you and a VA, an employee, or a co-founder.
Everyone lands on one bill, and you can mix and match plan levels, keeping lighter users on the lower plan and heavier users on the higher one. That beats ten employees each billing $20 or $100 a month on different days.
Teams also lets you share skills, which work like Claude recipes. Build a recipe or automation once, click share with team, and everyone in the business has access to it.