Claude Code

What is Claude Code?

Claude Code is Anthropic's agentic coding tool: it reads your codebase, edits files, runs commands and works with your development tools from the terminal, IDE, desktop app or browser. Use it for scoped tasks such as a bug fix or new tests, and review every change. It needs a paid Claude plan (Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise), a Console account or a supported cloud provider.

What can you do with Claude Code?

Claude Code works as an agent rather than an autocomplete: you describe a task, and it reads the relevant files, proposes and makes edits, and can run commands such as your test suite. Anthropic's examples include fixing a double-charge bug in a checkout flow, adding a dark-mode setting and writing tests for a module.

You can run it in the terminal, inside VS Code or JetBrains IDEs, in a desktop app, on the web and on mobile, and hand it tasks from Slack or GitHub. The JetBrains plugin does not bundle the CLI, so install the Claude Code CLI first. The terminal CLI and IDE extensions can also use third-party model providers, according to the documentation.

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Try it on a small task

Suggested workflow: install the CLI with the command from the official documentation, open a clean branch of a project you know, and ask Claude Code to explain what the repository does. Then give it one scoped task with a clear result, such as adding tests for a single file.

Check what it read and changed, review the diff file by file and run the tests yourself. Note how much you had to correct and whether it touched files outside the task before you give it something larger, like a migration.

Claude Code pricing and access

Claude Code is included in all paid plans: Pro ($20 per month, or $17 per month with annual billing), Max, which starts at $100 per month, offers 5x or 20x more usage than Pro and includes $100 to $200 a month in API credits, as well as Team and Enterprise. Enterprise costs $20 per seat per month plus usage billed at API rates. It is not included in the Free plan. Claude Code shares the same usage limits as your chats, with rolling five-hour windows and weekly limits on paid plans. Prices exclude tax and may change.

Developers can instead connect an Anthropic Console account and pay for API usage, or use a supported third-party provider. Compare a week of realistic tasks against your plan's limits before relying on it for long-running work. If you are also considering an AI code editor, compare it with Cursor or GitHub Copilot on the same task.