Setup · 1:51
Getting started with Claude
Signing up, the plans, the interface and custom instructions.
- Sign up at claude.ai with Google, Apple or email; no card needed.
- Explore the interface: chats, projects, settings.
- Set custom instructions so every chat knows your preferences.
| Setting | Why |
|---|---|
| Custom instructions | Consistent answers |
| Plan | Access to models and features |
| Profile | Better context |
Do this in your own tools, step by step. Ticks are saved on this device.
Do you need a card to sign up?
No.
What do custom instructions do?
Apply your preferences to every chat.
0:00 Free gets you a real working Claude on the mid-tier model, capped by a rolling 5-hour message window, and you get up to five projects. You don't get Claude code, and you don't get code work on free. Enterprise is custom pricing, sold through sales, and it adds SSO, audit logs, data residency, and compliance controls. If you need that, you already have a procurement process for it. At the top of any conversation, the model selector sits right next to the send button.
0:24 Click it, and you pick which model you're talking to. And right next to that is the effort and thinking control. How hard Claude works on each response. We'll get into what that actually does in a few minutes because it changed completely in this generation. Custom instructions, the one setting that changes every answer. Here's what I actually have in mind. I run a YouTube channel covering AI tools. Default to direct, specific answers. Skip the hedging and the four-option lists.
1:14 When you give me a number, tell me where it came from. Push back if you think I'm wrong instead of agreeing by default. That's it. Four sentences, and it changes the shape of every single response Claude gives me from that point forward. The mistake most people make is writing something vague, like, "Be helpful and concise." That doesn't constrain anything. Write it like you're onboarding a new hire. What to do, what to never do, and what tone to use.
1:38 This one setting takes 90 seconds to write, and it's probably the single highest leverage 5 minutes you'll spend in this entire video. Projects solve a specific problem. You stop re-explaining yourself every time you open a new chat. Each project is its own workspace with its own knowledge base, its own
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