Claude for complete beginners

Claude is an AI assistant made by Anthropic. Its strengths are natural-sounding writing, understanding long documents, and helping with code. This guide is for anyone just getting started.

1. Get started

1. Go to claude.ai, or download the Claude app for mobile or desktop.
2. Sign up with your email or Google account.
3. Start chatting. The free plan is enough to try it out; the Pro plan gives higher usage limits and fuller access to features.

2. Must-try features

• Projects — keep documents and instructions in one place. Every chat inside the project uses that context automatically.
• Document upload — attach PDFs, reports or long research, then ask for a summary, key points, or Q&A.
• Artifacts — Claude can create documents, code, diagrams and even small apps in a separate panel you can use or edit right away.

3. Example prompt

I've attached [DOCUMENT NAME].

Write a summary of at most 10 points for [AUDIENCE], in plain language.
Then list 3 important questions I should ask before making a decision.

4. Tips for better results

• Show an example of the output you want — Claude is great at matching a style from examples.
• Ask Claude to ask first: “Before you start, ask me anything you need to know.”
• Break big tasks into steps and check each result before moving on.
• If a result isn't quite right, ask for a specific revision (“shorter”, “more casual”) instead of starting over.