Signing up for Claude Pro: the first hour

How to sign up for Claude Pro, step by step

Sign up for Claude Pro in this order. Create a free account at claude.ai. Use the free tier for a few minutes. Then open Settings, then Billing, and upgrade. Payment takes a credit or debit card issued in a supported country, and when the card is accepted the whole path takes about five minutes.

Two things surprise new subscribers. The card is refused for reasons that have nothing to do with your balance. And the desktop app is not the only place Claude runs, so people hunt for an installer that does not exist for their platform. Both are covered below. For the price table and the limit figures, read what Claude Pro costs and what it limits next to this page. What follows is the order of operations.

Create the free account first

Go to claude.ai and enter your email address, or continue with a Google account. Email sign-up sends a login link to that address. During account creation Anthropic asks for a phone number from a supported location, and paid plans are sold only to people physically located in one of those places. Brazil is on the list as of August 2026, along with most of Latin America and Europe. The list is published at anthropic.com/supported-countries and it changes, so check it before you plan around it.

Do not upgrade yet. The free account and the paid account are the same account. Upgrading later keeps your chat history and your settings, so nothing is lost by spending ten minutes on the free tier first.

What the free tier gives you before you pay

The free plan runs the chat. You get conversations in the browser, file upload, web search, and memory. That is enough to find out whether Claude answers your kind of question well, which is the only test that matters before you pay. What free does not give you is room: the usage allowance is much smaller, and it is the allowance rather than the feature list that pushes most people to upgrade. What the free tier actually allows in a day is worth reading first, because a reader who needs an hour of chat a week may never reach the ceiling.

One feature is missing entirely on free: Claude Code. The terminal tool requires a Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise or Console account, and a free account is refused at login. If Claude Code is the reason you are here, the free tier cannot answer the question for you, and whether Claude Code comes with a Pro subscription covers what the plan does and does not cover.

Upgrade to Pro from Settings and Billing

In the web app, click your name in the lower left corner, then Settings, then Billing, then "Upgrade plan". Choose Pro on the plan page. Choose monthly or annual billing, then enter the card and confirm.

As of August 2026 Anthropic lists Pro at $20 per month in the United States, with pricing in local currency where that is supported. Read the currency shown on the checkout page before you confirm, because it decides everything in the payment section below. Annual billing charges the whole year up front at a lower effective monthly rate. On a card that has to convert currency, that means one large international charge instead of twelve small ones, so it is also one conversion and one tax line instead of twelve.

Pick monthly for a first month you might cancel. The subscription renews on its own at the end of each period, and cancelling lives in the same Billing screen. How to cancel or downgrade a Claude plan covers what happens to the days you already paid for.

Where Claude actually runs

There are four places, and one Pro login covers all of them.

• The browser. claude.ai. Nothing to install, and every platform gets this one.
• Desktop apps. macOS, Windows on x64 and arm64, and a Linux build that is in beta and supports Ubuntu and Debian on x64 and arm64. As of August 2026 the Linux build ships Chat, Claude Code and Cowork, while Computer Use is not yet available on Linux. Downloads are at claude.com/download.
• Mobile. The iOS app in the App Store, the Android app in Google Play.
• The terminal. Claude Code, a CLI (command line interface) that reads and edits files inside a project directory.

If you run Linux and the desktop beta does not cover your distribution, the browser plus Claude Code reaches the same features. Running Claude on a Linux desktop and from the command line goes through distribution support in more detail.

Install Claude Code in the terminal

The native installer covers macOS, Linux, and WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux):

curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash
claude --version

claude --version should print a version number such as 2.1.211 (Claude Code). If your shell answers claude: command not found right after a successful install, the launcher was written to ~/.local/bin and your current shell read its PATH before that directory existed. Open a new terminal and run it again.

There is an npm package if you prefer to manage it that way. It needs Node.js 22 or later, and it installs the same native binary:

npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

Do not put sudo in front of that command. A global install owned by root leaves files your own user cannot write, so the background updater fails every time and you stay on an old version. Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, RHEL and Alpine also have signed package repositories, documented at code.claude.com.

Now log in and check which account you are on:

claude

The first run opens a browser to authenticate. Sign in with the same account you just upgraded. If you had already set up an API key, type /login inside Claude Code to switch over to the subscription. /status prints the connected account and what is left of your allowance. A session that reports a Console account instead of your plan is billing you per token at API rates, which means you are paying twice. claude doctor prints installation and settings diagnostics without starting a session, and it is the first thing to run when the install looks wrong.

Why the card is declined, and what to change

This is the step that fails most often outside the United States, and a Brazilian card meets nearly every cause at once.

Anthropic accepts credit cards and debit cards. It does not accept PayPal, Venmo, or any other third-party payment processor. Bank transfer exists only for Enterprise and API accounts on monthly invoicing, so a personal Pro subscription needs a card. When your bank refuses the charge, Anthropic receives a decline with almost no explanation attached, which is why the support page lists possible causes instead of telling you which one you hit. Work through them in this order.

International purchases are switched off on the card. Many Brazilian issuers keep "compras internacionais" disabled until you enable it in the bank app. The charge is then refused instantly with the money sitting in the account.

The billing address does not match the bank's records. Anthropic passes the address you type to your issuer for verification. A postal code (CEP) left over from your previous address is enough to fail the check. Type the address exactly as your bank holds it.

3DS was not completed. 3DS (3-D Secure) is the extra confirmation your bank runs, usually a push notification in the bank app or a one-time code by SMS. Dismiss the notification, or let the code expire, and the payment fails. Keep the bank app open on your phone while you press Subscribe.

The billing country is not supported. A card whose billing address sits outside the supported locations is refused no matter how much money is on it.

The first month worked and the renewal failed. Then the card is fine, and what your issuer refused is the repeating foreign charge. Banks score a recurring international payment differently from the one you approved by hand. Ask your bank to allow future charges from Anthropic, then update the payment method in Settings and Billing so a new attempt runs.

If it is none of those, wait and try again, because a temporary processing fault clears on its own. When payment keeps failing the account drops back to free instead of sitting in a broken paid state, and your conversations stay where they are.

One route avoids the card checkout entirely. Subscribing inside the iOS or Android app hands payment to the App Store or Google Play, which charges whatever method that store account already uses. Receipts and cancellation then live in the store account rather than in Anthropic's Billing screen. Pick one route and stay on it.

Why the statement amount is not the checkout amount

Three numbers describe one subscription, and they live in three different places.

The checkout page shows the amount and the currency Anthropic will charge. Read the currency. If it is dollars, everything below applies to you.

The invoice sits in Settings and Billing, and a copy is emailed with the subject "Your receipt from Anthropic". It shows the subscription line, any proration if you changed plans mid-cycle, any account credit that was applied, and a tax line. Tax is calculated from your billing address, which Anthropic takes from the address on your payment method. Change that address and the tax on future invoices changes with it.

The card statement, your fatura, is where the number grows. A dollar charge on a Brazilian card is converted to reais by your issuer, at the issuer's rate on the day it processes the transaction rather than the rate you saw on the day you subscribed. On top of the converted amount, Brazilian law applies IOF (imposto sobre operações financeiras) to foreign-currency card purchases. That rate is set by federal decree and has been changed more than once, so read the current one from your own fatura rather than from any article. Most issuers print the original dollar amount beside the converted line, with IOF listed separately on the same statement.

So the amount your bank takes is always larger than the amount on the Anthropic invoice, and neither document is wrong. Anthropic never sees the conversion or the IOF, which is why its support team cannot explain the difference. Your issuer can.

Your actual first hour with Pro

Spend it on work you already have, not on test prompts. Four things are worth doing.

1. Upload a real document and ask a question you already know the answer to. A PDF (portable document format) contract, an application log, a spreadsheet export. You are calibrating the tool, so a checkable question teaches you more than an impressive one.
2. Start a Project and put your standing context in it. A project holds instructions and files that every chat inside it can see, which stops you pasting the same background at the top of every conversation.
3. Point Claude Code at a repository you know well. Run claude inside the directory and ask it to explain a file you wrote yourself. A wrong answer is obvious to you there, which is exactly why you start there.
4. Open Settings and Usage and look at the meter before you have spent anything. Knowing where it started makes the first limit message far less confusing.

Then choose your model on purpose instead of leaving the default in place. Which Claude model to pick for which job covers when the largest model earns its cost and when it burns your allowance for nothing.

Where the usage limit will first surprise you

Pro usage runs on a rolling five-hour session window. The window opens with your first message and closes five hours later, so it does not reset at midnight or at any fixed clock time. Weekly limits sit above that, and those do reset at a fixed time each week assigned to your account.

The part people do not expect is that messages are not equal. Your allowance is consumed by the length of what is sent, and a long conversation resends the entire thread on every turn. The same question therefore costs more at message forty than at message four. Starting a fresh chat for a new topic is cheaper than continuing an old one, and attaching a large file raises the cost of every message after it, not only the one it is attached to.

Claude Code draws on the same allowance. Terminal work and browser chats count against a single pool, which is why a heavy coding afternoon can leave you unable to chat in the evening. /status in Claude Code and Settings then Usage in the browser read the same meter. When the allowance runs out, Claude Code offers to continue on API credits at standard rates or to wait for the reset, and it will not switch over without you agreeing to it.

How Claude's usage limits are counted goes deeper into the mechanism, and what to do when you hit the limit covers your options at the moment the message appears.

Did you need Pro at all?

By the end of the first hour you have enough evidence to answer that. Watch two things. Did the free plan's limit interrupt real work often enough to matter? Did you use something Pro adds that you could not do before, such as Claude Code?

If neither happened, cancel before the renewal date and carry on with free. The account survives the downgrade and your history stays. If both happened, the question becomes which paid plan fits, and choosing between Pro, Max and Team compares them on usage rather than on feature lists. For the judgment itself, whether Claude Pro is worth paying for takes the case apart properly, and it is a better use of your second hour than another test prompt.

FAQ

Why was my card declined when I tried to subscribe to Claude Pro?

Anthropic receives a decline from your bank with no reason attached, so work through the causes in order. Enable international purchases on the card in your bank app. Check that the billing address you typed matches the one your bank holds, postal code included. Complete the 3DS prompt in the bank app while the checkout page is still open. Confirm the card's billing country is a supported location. Anthropic accepts credit and debit cards only, so PayPal and similar processors will never work. If it still fails, your bank can tell you the exact reason and Anthropic cannot.

Why is the amount on my card statement higher than the Anthropic invoice?

The invoice in Settings and Billing is what Anthropic charged, in the currency shown at checkout, plus any tax calculated from your billing address. If that currency is dollars and your card is Brazilian, your issuer converts the charge to reais at its own rate on the day it processes the payment, and IOF (imposto sobre operações financeiras) is applied to foreign-currency card purchases. Both additions come from your bank, appear only on the fatura, and are invisible to Anthropic.

Is there a Claude desktop app for Linux?

Yes, in beta as of August 2026. It supports Ubuntu and Debian on x64 and arm64, and it ships Chat, Claude Code and Cowork, while Computer Use is not yet available on Linux. On any other distribution, use claude.ai in the browser and install Claude Code with curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash.

Do I get Claude Code on the free plan?

No. Claude Code requires a Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise or Console account, and signing in with a free account is refused. Pro includes it, and everything you do in Claude Code counts against the same usage allowance as your browser chats.

Can I pay for Claude Pro through the App Store or Google Play?

Yes. Subscribing inside the iOS or Android app hands the payment to the store, which charges the method already attached to that store account. Receipts and cancellation then live in the store account instead of in Anthropic's Billing screen. Choose one route and keep it, because managing the subscription from the wrong side is confusing later.