Claude
Anthropic’s frontier LLM family. Widely considered the best model for work tasks and coding. Distinct from Claude Code, which is the CLI agent harness built on top of Claude models.
Strengths
- Work tasks: Modifying Excel documents, writing Word documents, analyzing large amounts of data
- Coding: Strong coding performance across the model family
- Integrations and tools: Supports pluggable integrations (Gmail, Notion, Figma, Slack, HubSpot, and many more) directly from the Claude web interface
- Skills: Users can define reusable skills that customize Claude’s behavior (e.g., a “humanizer” skill to reduce AI-sounding writing)
Tiers (as of early 2026)
| Plan | Price | Notable |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Web, iOS, Android, desktop; code gen and writing; not the frontier model |
| Pro | $17–20/month | Claude Code, Claude co-work, unlimited projects, research, frontier models, Excel/PowerPoint integration |
| Max | $100/month | Everything in Pro, much more usage |
| Heavy | $200/month | Maximum usage tier |
The jump from free to Pro ($20/month) is described as significant — unlocks Claude Code and many use cases unavailable on free tier.
Model Family
The Claude family includes multiple tiers (Haiku, Sonnet, Opus) at different capability and cost levels. See the model IDs used in Claude Code for specifics.
Claude vs Claude Code
- Claude: The model family; conversational interface at claude.ai
- Claude Code: A CLI agent harness that wraps Claude models with tools, file access, and agentic capabilities for software development
Compared to Other Frontier Models
According to Matthew Berman:
- Claude: best for work and coding
- ChatGPT: best for ease of use
- Gemini: best for search and deep research
See Also
- Claude Code — the CLI agent harness built on Claude
- ChatGPT — OpenAI’s alternative
- Gemini — Google’s alternative
- Open-Source Model Integration — running Claude Code with cheaper models
- Matthew Berman — source
- Source: Every AI Model Explained