1.2
Which Surface, And Which Plan
What you need for this one
- Claude plans and pricingPick the cheapest paid tier that says it includes Claude Code.
Why this exists
There are several different ways to use Claude, they have overlapping names, and people bounce between them for weeks without ever knowing which one they should be in. It's a small confusion that quietly costs a lot of time.
Ten minutes now and you'll never wonder again. You'll also avoid paying for something you don't need, which is the other thing people get wrong here.
The idea
Same brain, different rooms. You choose the room by asking one question: does this need to touch my files?
That's the whole decision tree. Everything else is detail.
| Room | What it's for | Touches your machine? |
|---|---|---|
| Claude app (web, desktop, phone) | Thinking, drafting, questions, working something out | No |
| Claude Code | Doing — reading, changing, building, fixing real files | Yes |
| Cowork | Longer-running work you check in on rather than watch | Yes, its own space |
| API | Wiring Claude into software you're building | Only what you wire up |
For the next eight weeks you live in two of those. The app when you're thinking. Claude Code when you're doing. If you're unsure, ask whether the result is words or a changed file — words, use the app; changed file, use Claude Code.
One thing that catches everyone: Claude Code isn't one place. It's the same thing available in a few forms — inside the desktop app, in a terminal window, inside a code editor. Same tool, same behaviour, different windows onto it. You'll use the desktop app, because it's the one with a proper interface and you don't need a terminal for it. When you see people online in a black terminal window doing this, they're not using something better. Same thing, older window.
On plans. Prices and tiers change, so this is the way to decide rather than a number:
- Start on the cheapest paid tier that includes Claude Code. Not the free one — you'll hit limits mid-lesson and conclude the tool is bad when it's the plan.
- Use it for two weeks. If you're regularly hitting limits and it's interrupting real work, move up. If you're not, stay.
- Don't buy API access. That's for wiring Claude into software you're building. It's billed completely differently and it is not what you need. People buy it because it sounds more professional; it isn't, it's just a different product.
Upgrade on evidence, not on the assumption you'll grow into it. The evidence takes two weeks to arrive and it's free to wait.
Do
- Open the Claude app and ask it something that only needs thinking — a question, a draft, working through a decision. Note that it never asks about your files, because it can't.
- Look at what plans exist and what each includes.
- Pick the cheapest paid tier that includes Claude Code. Set it up.
- Write
plan.mdwith three things: which plan, what it costs, and what would have to happen for you to move up. - Put a note in your calendar two weeks out: check whether I'm hitting limits.
- Write yourself one line: when do I use the app, and when do I use Claude Code?
Step 4's third question is the one that matters. Writing down your upgrade trigger now stops you upgrading in three days out of vague guilt about it being slow.
Done when
Never do
Don't buy API access. Different product, different billing, not what you're doing. If a tutorial tells you that you need an API key for something in this course, you've wandered into a different course.
Don't run on the free tier. You will hit a limit in the middle of a lesson, and you'll blame the tool for something the plan did.