Which Claude plan you should buy

TL;DR

Founder starting out: Pro at $20/month covers 90% of cases. Internal team using together: Team at $30/user/month. Free is only for testing. Max and Enterprise are specific cases.

The decision tree in 4 questions

1 · How many times a day do you open Claude?

• Fewer than 5x/day, simple cases → Free works. The limit is hourly, not daily.
• 5-30x/day, analyses and documents → Pro.
• Heavy operation, continuous use → Max ($100-200/month, depending on tier).

2 · Are you the only user or do you have a team?

• Just you → Pro or Max.
• 2+ people using regularly → Team ($30/user/month, minimum 5 users).
• Whole company + SSO + sensitive data + audit → Enterprise (contact sales).

3 · Do you need Skills, Connectors, and Code Execution?

Plan	Skills	Connectors	Code Execution	Memory
Free	❌	Limited	❌	Limited
Pro	✅	✅	✅	✅
Max	✅ + larger quota	✅	✅ + larger quota	✅
Team	✅ shared	✅ shared	✅	✅
Enterprise	✅ central	✅ central	✅	✅ + audit log

90% of founders need at least Pro to take advantage of the immersion.

4 · Does ZDR (Zero Data Retention) matter to you?

• Regulated sector (healthcare, financial, legal with confidential data) → Enterprise with ZDR or use via API with ZDR enabled.
• Normal company with internal data → Pro/Team is already enough. Claude does not train on your data on Pro+.

Real total cost

Calculated over 12 months, assuming an active founder (R$ values are Brazilian Reais — roughly USD × 5):

Plan	Annual cost	Equivalent in person-hours
Pro	~R$ 1,200	~6h of a junior analyst
Max	~R$ 6,000-12,000	~3 days of a senior consultant
Team (5 users)	~R$ 9,000	~9 days of a senior consultant

If you use it at least 1x per week for an important decision: Pro pays for itself in 30 days.

Gotchas

• Don’t start on Max. It’s overkill at the beginning. Move to Max only after consistently hitting limits on Pro.
• Free locks up in the middle of an analysis. You open a big spreadsheet, it answers, and stops — you’ll wait 2h to continue. Lost work.
• Team with fewer than 5 people: you still pay for 5 seats. Calculate the cost-benefit vs individual Pro carefully.
• Cancellation: annual is paid upfront. Pro monthly cancels whenever you want.
• Enterprise requires a sales conversation. 4-6 weeks to activate with SSO + audit log.

Next step

With your plan chosen, learn how to talk to the AI in a way it answers well.