Foundations
Which Claude Should You Use? A Non-Coder's Guide
Twelve-plus Claude surfaces, one plain-English map. Excel, PowerPoint, Word, web, mobile, Cowork, Chrome, Code, and more. Which one to pick for which job, from someone who has used all of them.
On this page (8 sections)
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Claude
Web & mobile
What it is
Just like ChatGPT, it's a chatbot you talk to. Use it in a browser at claude.ai, or in the desktop and mobile apps. Free tier covers most of what you'd start with.
Where to use
- Talk through a half-formed idea until it makes sense
- Draft an email, a report, a tricky Slack reply
- Read a long thing and ask questions about it
Pros
- Free tier works fine to start
- Remembers past chats on Pro
Cons
- Can't touch files on your computer
- Doesn't make images for you
How the work flows
Claude Code
Terminal
What it is
You use this through your terminal, or inside Cursor or VS Code if you'd rather work in an editor. Tell it what to build, it reads the codebase, writes the code, runs tests, commits.
Where to use
- Build a feature that touches many files at once
- Get tests written and fixed for you
- Hand off long jobs and check back later (Dispatch)
Pros
- Holds a huge codebase in context (Max plan)
- Goes from prompt to shipped commit
Cons
- You need to be OK with a terminal
- Bills climb if you're not watching
How the work flows
Cowork
Desktop, Pro+
What it is
You need the Claude desktop app installed first. Cowork lives inside it as a mode that can use your computer, drive your apps, and connect to services like Gmail and Drive.
Where to use
- Cross-reference one export with another report
- Run a long task while you do something else
- Drive apps the chat can't reach on its own
Pros
- No code, no terminal needed
- Connects to Gmail, Drive, more
Cons
- Pro plan or higher required
- Computer-use piece still in preview
How the work flows
Claude inside your tools
Claude for Word
Office add-in
What it is
A sidebar add-in you install inside Microsoft Word. Open any document, the sidebar sits next to your text and you ask it questions or hand it edits.
Where to use
- Comb through a 40-page contract or spec
- Find where Section 7 contradicts Section 2
- Get redlines you can accept or reject one by one
Pros
- You never leave Word
- Edits show up as proper Word edits
Cons
- Newest of the Office add-ins
- Expect a glitch here and there
How the work flows
Claude for Excel
Office add-in
What it is
A side pane add-in you install inside Microsoft Excel. Open a sheet, the pane sits next to your cells and you ask it about anything in the workbook.
Where to use
- Trace a number back to the cells that made it
- Make sense of someone else's spreadsheet
- Turn a flat table into a pivot in one go
Pros
- Points at the cell, not just an answer
- Does NOT need M365 Copilot
Cons
- Conversations don't stick around
- Whatever you did is gone in 30 days
How the work flows
Claude for PowerPoint
Office add-in
What it is
An add-in you install inside Microsoft PowerPoint. Open a deck, the side pane sits next to your slides and turns a messy outline into a first-draft deck using your real template.
Where to use
- Bullets to slides in one pass
- Drafts that follow your real template
- Tighten the words on every slide
Pros
- Uses your real .pptx template
- Picks up the brand palette
Cons
- Spacing is rarely perfect first try
- Fonts swap on you sometimes
How the work flows
Claude for Chrome
Browser extension
What it is
A Chrome browser extension. Once you install it, it opens as a side panel next to whatever website you're on, and it can read across all your open tabs.
Where to use
- Get the gist of a long article without scrolling
- Pull patterns from five tabs at once
- Have it check the same site every day
Pros
- Reads exactly what's on your screen
- Knows about your other tabs
Cons
- Beta, paid plans only
- The panel is narrow
How the work flows
Claude is no longer one thing
I've used twelve of Claude's surfaces in the last month. Some of them on purpose. A couple by accident. Here's the thing nobody tells you when you're coming from ChatGPT: the surface you pick matters more than which model is running underneath.
Claude.ai in a browser is not the same experience as Claude in Excel. Claude in Excel is not the same as Cowork. Cowork is not the same as Claude Code. Each one is tuned for a different job. Pick the wrong one and the tool feels dumb. Pick the right one and the work disappears.
This page is the map I wish someone had handed me three months ago. Not a ranking. Not a "best" anything. Just: you want to do X, use Y. Frankly speaking, that's the question most people are actually asking.
If you're a developer, skip down to the Code section. Everyone else, start at the top.
Pick the Claude that matches the job
Ten jobs. Ten answers. If you only read one section of this page, make it this one.
I want to chat or do quick research
→ Claude.ai in the browser
This is the ChatGPT-equivalent experience. Free tier works. Upload files, use Artifacts for building shareable tools, use Projects to keep a workspace scoped to one topic. Mobile app if you're away from your desk.
Default here if you're not sure. It's also the surface you'll use most even after you've learned the others.
I want to analyze or build a spreadsheet
→ Claude for Excel
Installs as a Microsoft 365 add-in and sits in a side pane inside Excel itself. Formulas, pivots, financial models, "explain what this sheet is doing." It cites cells, so you can trace where a number came from.
One honest caveat: it does NOT require Microsoft 365 Copilot. You just need a paid Claude plan (Pro or higher) and a compatible Office version. A lot of enterprise buyers get that wrong and scope a Copilot license they don't need.
Also: Claude for Excel doesn't save your chat history, and it wipes data after 30 days. If you work in finance, legal, or anything regulated, know that before you open a sensitive model.
I want to build a slide deck
→ Claude for PowerPoint
Same idea as Excel. Installs as an add-in. Reads your template, respects brand colors, generates and edits slides in place. A messy outline turns into a first-draft deck in a few minutes.
It's not perfect at brand compliance. Expect to clean up spacing and occasional font issues. But the structural work, layout, headline writing, turning bullets into prose, is genuinely good.
I want to write or review a long document
→ Claude for Word
Newest of the Office add-ins. Launched April 13. Lives in a sidebar, supports redlining, tracked changes, comments. Long-document review is where it shines. Drop in a 40-page spec, ask for inconsistencies across sections, and it surfaces things you would have missed on your third read.
Least mature of the three Office add-ins because it's the newest. A few rough edges. Still worth it if you live in Word.
I want Claude to help me while I browse the web
→ Claude for Chrome
Browser extension. Opens as a side panel. Reads the page you're on, summarizes articles, runs scheduled tasks, moves across tabs. Think of it as "ChatGPT but it can see what you see."
Heads up: it's in beta and requires a paid plan. Not on the free tier.
I want to search my work email, Teams, OneDrive, and SharePoint
→ Microsoft 365 Connector
Most people miss this one, including me until last month. Different from the Office add-ins. The Connector lets Claude read across your Microsoft work stack. You ask "what did Ana commit to in her last three messages," and it surfaces the answer from Teams plus the relevant Outlook thread.
Two gotchas: read-only (Claude cannot send email or create calendar events through it), and work tenants only (personal @outlook.com accounts aren't supported). The Connector is available on all plans, including Free.
I want Claude to run a multi-step task on its own
→ Cowork
This is the one that breaks people's brains. Cowork is Claude with computer-use, connectors (Gmail, Drive, DocuSign, FactSet), and the ability to keep going across a long task without you babysitting it.
The honest version: Cowork is released as a product, but the computer-use piece, where Claude actually drives your desktop, is still research preview. Pro and Max plans only. Don't describe Cowork as "fully autonomous" to your colleagues yet. It's closer to "autonomous with training wheels."
I use Cowork most weeks for unglamorous work. Running lead-performance analysis against a 24-month cost-per-lead (CPL) export. Cross-referencing an ad-delivery report with a GA4 query. Cleaning up my Mac when the browser and memory are out of hand and I can't figure out which tab is eating RAM. Nothing flashy. A patient intern with a longer attention span than I have.
I want to hand a task off from my phone to my desktop
→ Cowork Dispatch
You're on your phone, you start something ("research these five vendors, draft a comparison doc"), and when you get back to your laptop the work is done and waiting. It persists across devices. Ethan Mollick wrote about this and called it "the first truly useful agent handoff I've used." He's not wrong.
Research preview. Pro and Max only. Launched March 17. Small feature, big quality-of-life impact.
I want to build software or write code
→ Claude Code
This is the surface this guide was originally written for. If you're a developer, you already know. If you're not: Claude Code is a command-line tool (and increasingly a desktop app) that reads your entire repo, writes code, runs tests, debugs, and commits. It's the power-user surface.
Start with the CLI if you're comfortable in a terminal, or the web version if you want to try it without installing anything. If you live in VS Code or JetBrains, the IDE extension is probably what you want.
I want to build my own product with Claude inside
→ Claude API + Agent SDK
The is for anyone integrating Claude into their own software. The Agent (renamed from Claude Code SDK) gives you the same agent loop Claude Code uses, but programmable. Pay per token.
This is the surface most readers of this page will never touch. But if you're a PM thinking about an AI feature for your product, this is where your engineers will live.
Who pays, what ships, what's still beta
I know the above is a lot. Here's the condensed grid.
| Surface | Status | Who pays | What it's best at |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude.ai (web) | Shipped | Free + all paid plans | Chat, Artifacts, Projects, quick research |
| Claude mobile (iOS/Android) | Shipped | All plans | On the go, voice, Dispatch handoff |
| Claude Desktop (Mac/Win) | Shipped | All plans (Cowork gated to Pro or higher) | Native host for Cowork and Code |
| Claude for Chrome | Beta | Paid plans only | Side-panel agent while browsing |
| Claude for Excel | Shipped | Pro or higher | Formulas, pivots, financial modeling |
| Claude for PowerPoint | Shipped | Pro or higher | Template-aware slide generation |
| Claude for Word | Shipped (Apr 13) | Pro or higher | Redlining, comments, long-doc review |
| Microsoft 365 Connector | Shipped | All plans (incl. Free) | Read across Outlook/Teams/OneDrive/SharePoint |
| Cowork | Shipped (computer-use still in preview) | Pro or higher | Multi-step autonomous work |
| Cowork Dispatch | Research preview | Pro, Max | Phone-to-desktop task handoff |
| Claude Code (CLI) | Shipped | Pro or higher or API | Agentic terminal coding |
| Claude Code on the web | Research preview | Pro, Max | Cloud sandbox coding |
| Claude Code Desktop app | Shipped (Apr 14 redesign) | Pro or higher | Parallel coding sessions |
| Claude Agent SDK | Shipped | API | Build your own agent |
| Claude API | Shipped | API | Anything custom |
| Claude in Slack | Shipped | Paid Slack | Workspace bot, thread Q&A |
Plans: Pro is $17/mo annual or $20/mo monthly. Team is $20/seat annual, $25/seat monthly. Max starts at $100/mo. Enterprise is $20/seat plus API usage. I'm not rounding. If you see someone round those numbers, verify before you quote them.
Three mental shifts that make this easier
Most people reading this page are ChatGPT users poking at Claude. That's who I was a year ago. Three things tripped me up more than anything else.
You don't pick a Claude, you pick a surface
ChatGPT is one thing with variations. Web app, mobile app, API. Claude is twelve things, each tuned for a different job. Don't look for "the" Claude. Ask "which one for this task."
This took me two weeks to internalize. Once it clicked, every frustration melted. The tool wasn't bad. I was using it for the wrong job.
Memory works differently
Claude Memory became available on the free tier on March 2. Unlike ChatGPT's Memory, which remembers facts about you across everything, Claude's Memory stays inside Claude.ai chats and does not cross into Projects. Projects are deliberately siloed.
If you build Custom GPTs in ChatGPT, Projects is the closest equivalent. The architecture is different though: Projects are scoped workspaces with their own context, not custom-instruction wrappers.
The import tool actually works
Anthropic launched claude.com/import-memory a few weeks ago. You export your ChatGPT memory, import it into Claude, it carries over. I tried it. Worked better than expected. If you're switching, do this first. Don't start from zero.
Treat Claude like a new intern, not a magic box
Every surface gets better when you onboard Claude. Spend ten minutes doing what you'd do with a new hire: tell it who you are, what you're working on, and when to ask versus when to just do.
In Claude Code and Cowork that contract lives in a file called CLAUDE.md. In Claude.ai Projects it's custom instructions. Same idea. You're writing a contract with your intern, and the clearer the contract, the better the work.
The three clauses I always include: what I'm working on, how I prefer to work, and when to ask before doing anything destructive. Ten minutes up front saves hours mid-session. If you juggle work and personal projects, read Keep Your Two Lives Apart before the two contracts get tangled.
Things I wish someone had told me
Six landmines I stepped on so you don't have to.
Office add-ins do NOT require Microsoft Copilot
Claude Pro is enough. A lot of IT teams get this wrong and scope a Copilot license that isn't needed.
Cowork is released, but computer-use is research preview
If someone tells you Cowork is "fully autonomous and shipped," they're overstating it. It's autonomous with guardrails, Pro and Max only.
Claude for Chrome is beta and paid-only
Not on the Free tier. This catches people.
Claude for Excel deletes chat history after 30 days
Don't use it for regulated workflows without understanding this.
The Microsoft 365 Connector is read-only
Claude cannot send email through it. Cannot create calendar events. Cannot edit Teams. It's a search layer, not a write layer.
Microsoft Copilot Cowork is not the same as Anthropic Cowork
It's a Microsoft product built on Anthropic tech. Don't conflate them, especially in enterprise conversations.
Tutorials on specific surfaces
If you've picked your surface and want to actually get started, more tutorials are coming.
- The first ten minutes: onboard your Claude like an intern (coming soon)
- Claude for Word: redlining and long-doc review (coming soon)
- Cowork Dispatch, explained for non-coders (coming soon)
- Claude for PowerPoint: template-aware deck building (coming soon)
- Cowork: when to use it and when not to (coming soon)
- Coming from ChatGPT? A non-coder's migration guide (coming soon)
- Claude for Excel: spreadsheets without spreadsheet trauma (coming soon)
Questions I get asked a lot
If I only buy one plan, which one?
Pro ($17/mo annual) covers every surface most people will touch: Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Cowork (with computer-use in preview), Chrome, Claude.ai, mobile, the Microsoft 365 Connector, and Claude Code. Max is worth it if you're running Claude Code daily or using Cowork for long agentic tasks, because the usage caps on Pro will bite. Team and Enterprise are about seats and admin, not features.
Does Claude in Excel work better than Microsoft Copilot?
Different strengths. For formula generation and explaining existing sheets, Claude is sharper and cites cells better. For "turn this table into a chart," Microsoft Copilot is still a bit smoother. Most finance folks I've talked to run both side by side and use whichever answers faster. You're allowed to do that.
Can I use Cowork on my phone?
Not for desktop control. The Dispatch handoff lets you start a Cowork task from mobile and come back to it on desktop, but the actual computer-use piece runs on your Mac or Windows machine. Phones don't host Cowork itself.
What's the difference between Cowork and Claude Code?
Cowork is general-purpose agent work: research, document drafting, filling spreadsheets, driving your computer. Claude Code is specifically for software engineering: reading code repos, writing and running code, debugging. Same parent model, very different tuning. If you're not a developer, you don't need Claude Code. If you are a developer, Cowork and Claude Code handle different parts of your day.
Is there a Claude for Outlook?
No standalone Outlook add-in exists. Outlook access ships through the Microsoft 365 Connector, which is read-only. You can ask Claude to find or summarize emails; it can't send them.
What about Gemini or ChatGPT for this kind of thing?
I use Claude for work and personal knowledge. I use ChatGPT for image generation sometimes. Gemini I dropped a while ago. But the real answer: the surface map matters more than the brand. The tools that win are the ones tuned for a specific job. If Gemini adds a sharper PowerPoint flow tomorrow, I'd try it. Tools rotate. The work doesn't.
How do I stay current with new surfaces?
Anthropic ships fast. Three new surfaces shipped in Q1 alone. I update this page monthly. If you subscribe to the newsletter below, you'll get updates when they land. That's the most reliable signal I know.
Last updated April 22, 2026. If I missed a surface or got a detail wrong, tell me. This page lives by the reports from the people actually using these things.
New guides, when they ship
One email, roughly weekly. CLAUDE.md templates, workflows I actually use, and the cut-for-length stuff that does not make the public guides. One-click unsubscribe.
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