Claude Code

About

Claude Code is Anthropic's agentic coding tool. It reads your codebase, edits files, runs commands and works with your development tools, and it runs in the terminal, in VS Code and JetBrains, in a desktop app and in the browser. There is no free Claude Code plan: it comes with a paid Claude subscription or a Claude Console account. As of October 2026 the lowest paid route is Claude Pro at $17 a month billed annually ($20 billed monthly), with Max at $100 a month and Ultra at $200 a month above it. It is one of the agent-style tools compared on our best AI coding assistant and best AI coding app pages, and it is part of the Claude vibe coding collection. What Claude Code does • Works across your whole project: Anthropic's product page says Claude Code maps and explains large codebases with agentic search, so you do not pick context by hand, and that it follows imports across the repo, runs tests and keeps going when something breaks. • Plan, edit, run: you describe a feature or paste an error in plain language. The docs say Claude Code plans the approach, writes code across several files and verifies it works. It asks permission before changing files or running commands. • Git and pull requests: it stages changes, writes commit messages, creates branches and opens pull requests. In CI it can review code and triage issues through GitHub Actions or GitLab CI/CD. • Parallel agents: the docs describe spawning several Claude Code agents on different parts of a task, with a lead agent coordinating, plus background agents for running whole sessions side by side. • Connect your tools: the Model Context Protocol lets Claude Code read design docs in Google Drive, update tickets in Jira or pull data from Slack. • Customise it: a CLAUDE.md file in your project root sets standards and preferences at the start of every session, and Claude Code can read an AGENTS.md instead. Skills package repeatable workflows, and hooks run shell commands before or after actions, such as formatting after every edit. • Scripting: it follows the Unix philosophy, so you can pipe logs into it or run it non-interactively in CI with the -p flag. An Agent SDK lets you build your own agents on the same tools. • Scheduled tasks: cloud scheduled tasks run even when your computer is off, desktop scheduled tasks run on your machine, and /loop repeats a prompt inside a CLI session. Where it runs • Terminal: the full-featured CLI. The docs recommend the native installer (curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash on macOS, Linux and WSL, or PowerShell and CMD commands on Windows). Homebrew (brew install --cask claude-code) and WinGet (winget install Anthropic.ClaudeCode) are also supported, and so are apt, dnf and apk on Linux. • IDEs: a VS Code extension with inline diffs, @-mentions, plan review and conversation history (it also installs in Cursor), and a plugin for JetBrains IDEs. The JetBrains plugin needs the CLI installed separately. • Desktop app: for macOS, Windows (x64 and ARM64) and, in beta, Ubuntu and Debian. It adds visual diff review, side-by-side sessions, scheduled tasks and cloud sessions, and needs a paid subscription. • Web and mobile: claude.ai/code in a desktop browser, and the Claude app for iOS and Android, for long tasks and repos you do not have locally. • Slack and GitHub: the product page lists Slack and GitHub among the ways to use Claude Code, including starting coding tasks from Slack. • Moving between surfaces: Remote Control continues a local session from a phone or browser, and claude --teleport pulls a web or mobile session into your terminal (teleport needs a claude.ai subscription). Pricing (as of October 2026) All prices are in US dollars and exclude tax. Anthropic says prices and plans may change at its discretion. • Free: $0. Claude Code is not included. • Pro: $17 a month billed annually ($200 up front), or $20 billed monthly. Claude Code is included, and usage is the 1x baseline in the 5-hour and weekly windows. • Max: $100 a month. Claude Code included, with 5x Pro usage in both the 5-hour and weekly windows. • Ultra: $200 a month, monthly billing only. Claude Code included. Anthropic lists no 5-hour limit for verified accounts and 10x Pro usage per week. • Team: standard seats $20 per seat a month billed annually ($25 billed monthly); premium seats $100 per seat a month billed annually ($125 billed monthly). For 2 to 150 users, Claude Code included. Premium seats get 5x the usage of standard seats. • Enterprise: $20 per seat a month billed annually with a 20-seat minimum, with usage billed separately at API rates. Claude Code included. • Claude Console account: Claude Code also works with an Anthropic Console account. The product page also lists a fast mode for Opus 5.5 at $8 and $40 per million tokens, in research preview. How usage limits work Subscription plans show usage per 5-hour window and per week, as multiples of Pro. Anthropic does not publish exact token counts per plan on the pricing page, only the multiples above. Who it suits • Professional developers who work in a terminal or editor and want an agent that edits many files and runs the tests itself. • Teams that want agent-driven pull requests, code review and issue triage inside GitHub or GitLab. • Engineers who want to automate chores such as test writing, lint fixes, dependency updates and release notes. • People who want to start a task on one device and finish it on another. Limitations to know • There is no free Claude Code tier, and most surfaces need a Claude subscription or Console account. • It is a coding agent, not a no-code builder. • Usage is capped by 5-hour and weekly limits on subscriptions, and heavy use can reach them. • The JetBrains plugin needs the CLI installed separately, and the Linux desktop app is in beta. • Teleport and the /desktop handoff need a claude.ai subscription. • Anthropic's own descriptions of what it can do are product claims, not independent measurements. FAQs What is Claude Code? Claude Code is Anthropic's agentic coding tool. It reads your codebase, edits files, runs commands and integrates with your development tools, in the terminal, IDE, desktop app and browser. How much does Claude Code cost? As of October 2026 it comes with Claude Pro at $17 a month billed annually ($20 monthly), Max at $100 a month, Ultra at $200 a month, Team and Enterprise seats, or pay-as-you-go API usage through a Claude Console account. The Free plan does not include it. Is Claude Code free? No. The Free Claude plan does not include Claude Code, according to Anthropic's pricing page. Which editors does Claude Code work in? VS Code (including Cursor) and JetBrains IDEs, plus the terminal, the desktop app and claude.ai/code. Does Claude Code need a backend server? The product page says Claude Code runs locally and talks directly to model APIs, with no backend server or remote code index. Can I use it in CI? Yes. The docs describe GitHub Actions and GitLab CI/CD integrations and a non-interactive mode with the -p flag. What we could not verify • Exact token or message counts behind each plan's usage limits, which the pricing page does not publish. • The Individual tab on the product page did not show its contents when we read it, so we rely on the pricing page for individual plans. • A product-page line about pooled API credits on Team plans did not match the pricing page, so we left it out. How this listing was put together This listing is based on Anthropic's own product page, pricing page and Claude Code documentation. Facts verified on 31 October 2026. Sources • Claude Code product page • Claude pricing • Claude Code documentation overview