Claude Code Paid

What it is

Claude Code is Anthropic's agentic coding tool. It reads your codebase, edits files, runs shell commands and tests, and works with git to create commits, branches and pull requests. The same engine runs on several surfaces: a terminal CLI, extensions for VS Code (and Cursor) and JetBrains IDEs, a Code tab in the Claude desktop app, and the web at claude.ai/code, including from the Claude mobile app.

On macOS, Linux and WSL the recommended install is curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash; Homebrew (brew install --cask claude-code) and WinGet are also documented, while the npm package is now marked as deprecated in the README.

Key features

• Multi-file changes planned and carried out across a repository, with tests run along the way
• Git workflow: staging, commit messages, branches and pull requests
• Scriptable with claude -p for pipes, CI jobs and bulk operations
• GitHub Actions and GitLab CI/CD integration, plus automatic PR review
• Scheduled work through cloud routines, desktop scheduled tasks and /loop
• Slack routing and Remote Control from a phone

Skills, subagents and MCP

This is the most extensible tool in the directory. Project instructions live in CLAUDE.md, and Claude also keeps an automatic memory between sessions. As of v2.1.277, Claude Code also reads a repository's AGENTS.md natively: by default it uses AGENTS.md only when there is no CLAUDE.md on the path, but a claude-md-and-agents-md Project instructions setting loads both together. A few session types (Bedrock, telemetry disabled, first run after an upgrade) can't read AGENTS.md directly and need it imported from a CLAUDE.md instead. Agent Skills package repeatable workflows that load on demand; subagents run parts of a task in parallel with their own context; hooks run your shell commands before or after agent actions; and any MCP server can be connected to reach tools such as Jira, Google Drive or Slack. Plugins bundle commands, agents, hooks and MCP servers for sharing.

Pricing

Claude Code is included in every paid Claude plan. At the time of writing (September 2026), Pro costs $20 per month or $17 per month billed annually, Max starts at $100 per month, and Team seats start at $20 per seat per month on annual billing. The free Claude plan does not include it. You can also pay per token through an Anthropic Console API account.

Who it is for

Developers who want an agent that can carry a task from plan to pull request, and teams that want to share skills, subagents and hooks across a codebase.

Verdict

Claude Code sets the pace for agent extensibility, which is why most skill and subagent packs target it first. The trade-offs are the lack of a free tier and usage limits that push heavy users towards the Max plans.