How To Use Claude
Anthropic's Claude shines on long documents and careful reasoning. Here's how to get the most out of it.
Overview
Claude is the AI you reach for when the input is big — a 100-page PDF, a messy codebase, a strategy memo. It's also the model with the most natural writing voice. This guide gets you set up and shows the workflows where Claude pulls ahead of ChatGPT.
Step by step
- 1
Sign in at claude.ai
Free tier is enough to evaluate. Pro unlocks Projects and 5x usage.
- 2
Create a Project for repeat work
Projects let you attach files and a custom system prompt that applies to every chat inside that project.
- 3
Use Artifacts for documents and code
Ask Claude to 'put this in an artifact' and you get a side panel you can iterate on without losing the rest of the chat.
- 4
Lean on the 200K context window
Paste in full transcripts, contracts, or codebases. Don't pre-summarize for it.
- 5
Ask for thinking before answering
Add 'think step by step before responding' for complex prompts — Claude reasons unusually well when asked.
Tips
- Claude is the best AI for sounding like a human in writing — use it for tone polish.
- Pair Claude with a search tool (Perplexity) for fresh info, since Claude has no live web on most plans.
- Upload code as a file rather than pasting — formatting stays intact.
Common mistakes
- • Treating Claude like a Google replacement — it's a reasoner, not a search engine.
- • Skipping Projects and re-pasting context every chat.
- • Asking for images — Claude doesn't generate them.