Claude training: learn to use it at work

In brief

Claude is Anthropic’s assistant: you write to it in plain language, and it reads long documents, writes with care, and produces real Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or PDF files. To learn to use it at work, start for free on claude.ai with a real, non-confidential document, ask it for a finished file, then review and have it corrected. The free plan is enough to get started.

Where to start

Create your account on claude.ai. If your company has a Claude workspace, use your work address.
Check the privacy setting under “Settings,” “Privacy”: it decides whether your conversations can be used to improve the AI.
Make a useful first try. Paste the notes from a recent meeting, with no confidential information, and write: “From these notes, prepare an eight-slide PowerPoint presentation: context, findings, three proposals, timeline, next steps. Give me the file to download.”
Ask for edits, for example: “Shorten slide 3.” Then check the figures before you share.

A good prompt states the context, the reader, the expected result, and the format. With Claude, ask directly for the file you need.

What Claude can do at work

Write and rework a text. A measured reply to an unhappy customer, from their email and your three arguments.
Read long documents. A PDF, a Word document, a spreadsheet, a photo: it summarizes, compares, and answers based on the content. Example: pull out the term and termination clauses of a forty-page contract.
Produce real files. An Excel spreadsheet with its formulas, a Word document, a PowerPoint, ready to download and edit.
Search the web when the question is about a fact to verify, with the links.
Connect to your tools. With connectors, it searches your email, your calendar, and your folders, if you allow it.
Work inside Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and Outlook. In Excel, it explains a formula, finds the source of an error, and cites the cells. This requires a paid plan.
Carry out a long task. You describe the result; Claude plans, reads your files, searches, then delivers the finished document. This feature, called Cowork, requires a paid plan; Anthropic is gradually merging it with chat, starting with the Pro and Max plans.

The details of each feature are on the Claude page.

Plans and prices

Plan	Price	Who it’s for
Free	$0	Getting to know it. Chat, web search, file creation, memory, and connectors, with a usage limit.
Pro	$20 per month, or $17 per month if billed yearly	An employee who uses it every day. More usage, Claude in Microsoft 365, Claude Code, projects.
Max	From $100 per month	Heavy use: 5 or 20 times the usage of Pro.
Team	$25 per user per month, $20 if billed yearly	Teams. Shared billing, admin settings, no training on your content by default.
Enterprise	$20 per user per month, plus usage, billed yearly	Large organizations and regulated industries.

Prices checked on October 3, 2026, published in dollars and excluding tax. On the French App Store, we recorded €22.00 per month for Pro.

Our advice: start for free, since the free plan already produces real files. Choose Pro if the limit stops you several times a week. For company data, go through a Team or Enterprise workspace.

Your data: what to know

Personal plans (Free, Pro, Max). Your conversations are used to train the AI only if you agree. If you agree, Anthropic may keep this data for up to five years.
Incognito mode. These conversations are never used for training, whatever your setting.
Team and Enterprise. No training on your content by default. At work, use your company’s workspace rather than a personal account.

In the desktop app, give Claude access to one specific folder, never to your whole disk. The right habits are in AI and GDPR at work.

Its limits

It can get a figure or a reference wrong. Check what matters.
The free plan has a usage limit, reset every five hours. Large files and long conversations use it up faster.
Prices are in dollars: outside the United States, the exact amount in your currency is shown at checkout.

Learn Claude with Nova

Nova is subscription software that teaches you to use Claude and the other assistants on your real tasks. You give your job and your level: Nova shows what is possible, then guides you step by step, with the prompt to write, the setting to choose, and the precautions. See for example the use cases for in-house counsel or a small business owner.

Nova is not Claude and does not replace it: you buy the Claude subscription from Anthropic. Nova costs €19 per month for one person, and from €129 per month for a team. Try the interactive demo or see pricing.

Frequently asked questions

Is Claude free?

Yes, there is a free plan: chat, web search, file creation, memory, and connectors, with a usage limit that resets every five hours. The Pro plan costs $20 per month, price checked on October 3, 2026.

What is the difference between Claude and ChatGPT?

Both are general-purpose assistants. We recommend Claude for long documents and polished Word, Excel, or PowerPoint files. ChatGPT also creates images, and its written conversations are unlimited on the free plan. Try both on the same task.

Can you give company documents to Claude?

Not from a personal account without your company’s approval. With the Team and Enterprise plans, your content is not used for training by default. For personal data, ask your data protection officer.

Do you need the Pro plan to work with Claude?

Not to get started. Pro becomes useful if the free limit often stops you, or if you want Claude inside Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.

Sources

Claude pricing, Anthropic
Is my data used for model training?, Anthropic
How long do you store my data?, Anthropic
About free Claude usage, Anthropic
Claude Cowork and chat are one Claude, Anthropic
Claude for Excel, Anthropic
Claude on the App Store (France), Apple

Learn Claude for your documents and your files