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Choose your Claude plan
Claude Code needs a paid Claude plan; the free plan doesn’t include it. By the end of this lesson you’ll be on the plan this course uses, and you’ll know the two limits you’ll run into and the one model setting that can cost extra.
For building your practice’s website, Claude Pro at $20 a month is the right plan. It includes everything this course uses, you can cancel any time, and realistically you only need it during the weeks you’re building and updating.
| Plan | Price | Includes Claude Code | For this course |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | No | Can't run Claude Code |
| Pro | $20/month, or $17/month billed annually ($200 up front) | Yes | The plan this course uses |
| Max | $100 or $200 per month | Yes | Not needed for one website |
| Team | $20 per seat per month billed annually, $25 billed monthly | Yes | Only if several people at a group practice will edit the site, and not until it's live |
- Go to
claude.aiand create an account with an email address you’ll keep. The full plan comparison is atclaude.com/pricing. - Choose the option to upgrade your plan. Depending on the screen you land on, it’s in your account menu or under Settings, then Billing.
- Pick Pro.
- Choose monthly billing rather than annual. The warning below explains why.
- Add your payment details. Your account can now run Claude Code.
Annual billing shows a lower monthly figure, $17 instead of $20, but it charges $200 up front for the full year. If you’re paying for the few weeks it takes to build and launch a website, monthly is the option that actually lets you cancel. You can switch to annual later if the tool earns its keep.
Three tabs, and this course lives in one
The Claude app has three tabs along the top: Chat, Cowork and Code. Chat is the ordinary Claude you may already have used. You can ignore Cowork for this course. Code is Claude Code, and everything in this course happens there.
The two limits you’ll meet
Pro usage runs on a 5-hour session window, with a weekly limit on top. If you hit the 5-hour limit, a break clears it. If you hit the weekly one, waiting an hour won’t help; it resets on your weekly cycle. That is why this course suggests spreading a big build across two sittings rather than one marathon afternoon.
Which model to use, and the one that costs extra
A model is the version of Claude doing the thinking, and you choose it from the model picker. On Pro, Claude Code starts on Sonnet 5, which is right for almost everything here. For the big build sessions later in the course, switch to Opus.
On Pro, the strongest model, Fable, shows Requires usage credits in the model picker. That means it’s billed as extra money on top of your subscription. Don’t pick it, and if Claude ever asks whether to continue using credits, say no and choose Opus instead. This course never needs it.
No plan below Enterprise can have a business associate agreement. Outside Enterprise, Anthropic offers one only on its API, the developer product billed by usage. Even on Enterprise, Claude Code is covered only in a special setup on qualified accounts. That is the reason for the never-paste rule from the last lesson. It is not a reason to buy Enterprise: you don’t need any client information to build a website.
Partly. OpenAI has its own coding assistant, Codex, included with ChatGPT plans, and it’s genuinely good. This course is built on Claude Code because its desktop app lets you do everything from an ordinary window, and the Build Kit you download in Module 1 is written for it. You can follow along with Codex, but you’ll be translating the steps yourself. The never-paste rule applies there too: a personal ChatGPT account doesn’t come with a business associate agreement.
You’re signed in to a Claude account on the Pro plan, billed monthly. When you install the app in the next lesson, the Code tab will open for you instead of asking you to upgrade.
The billing screen doesn’t match these steps. Anthropic moves labels around. Look for an Upgrade button, or open Settings and then Billing. The plan you want is always called Pro.
You see “Requires usage credits” next to a model. Choose Opus instead. Nothing in this course needs the model that costs extra.
You see a “limit reached” message while building. Nothing is lost; every file is saved on your own computer. Take a break for the 5-hour limit, or plan around the weekly one.
- Claude Pro, billed monthly at $20, is the plan this course uses.
- Everything happens on the Code tab. You can ignore Chat and Cowork here.
- Expect a 5-hour session window and a weekly limit; spread big builds over two sittings.
- Sonnet 5 by default, Opus for big builds, and never a model marked “Requires usage credits.”
- No Claude plan you’d buy for this course can have a business associate agreement, which is why no client information goes in.
Watch this step
A beginner's tour of the Claude app: the plans, the tabs, and a first run, so the screens in this lesson look familiar before you open them. It’s from an independent creator — credited below, so go give them a follow.
Claude Code Tutorial For Beginners: Build Your First App
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