Start here
Choose your Claude plan
Claude Code needs a paid Claude plan — the free one doesn’t include it. Here’s how to choose in 60 seconds.
For building your website, Claude Pro at $20/month is the right choice — it has everything you need. You can cancel any time, and you really only need it during the weeks you’re building and updating.
If you find yourself waiting on usage limits more than you’re building, Max 5x at $100/month removes that friction — and you can drop back to Pro the month after.
- Go to
claude.aiand create an account (use an email you’ll keep). The plan comparison is atclaude.com/pricing. - Open your account menu and choose the option to upgrade your plan, then pick Pro.
- Choose monthly billing, not annual — see the warning below.
- Add your payment details. Done — your account can now run Claude Code.
Annual billing shows a lower monthly price — around $17 instead of $20 — but it charges you $200 up front for the whole year. You’re likely only paying for the few weeks you’re building, so the monthly option is the one that actually lets you cancel.
That bigger Max plan comes in two sizes — Max 5x at $100/month and Max 20x at $200/month — and as above, it’s only worth it if Pro’s limits start getting in your way. You can upgrade in one click whenever that happens. Skip the “API” option; that’s for developers. Here’s the whole choice at a glance:
Pro — get this
- $20 / month
- Includes Claude Code
- Plenty for building a whole site
- Cancel any time
Max
- Max 5x $100 / Max 20x $200 per month
- For hours of daily coding
- Overkill for one website
- One-click upgrade later if ever
API
- For developers
- Pay-per-use billing
- No simple chat app
- Skip it
Fair question. OpenAI has its own coding agent, Codex, included with ChatGPT Plus at the same $20/month. It’s genuinely good. We built this course on Claude Code for one reason: its desktop app lets you do everything from a normal window, with no terminal — and the free Build Kit you’ll download in the next module is written specifically for it. If you’d rather use Codex, you can; you’ll just be translating the steps yourself. For the smoothest path, get Claude Pro for the few weeks you’re building.
If you ever see a “limit reached” message while building, don’t worry — your work is saved. Your limit resets every five hours, so a coffee break usually clears it.
There’s also a separate weekly limit. If you hit that one, waiting an hour won’t help — it resets on your weekly cycle. It’s the reason we suggest spreading a big build across two sittings rather than one marathon day.
More learning resources
Still want another angle? These are hand-picked and vetted to line up with this lesson — from creators and sites worth your time.