Getting started with Claude.

The chat window is where you type prompts. The left menubar runs down the side and holds navigation, tools and your profile menu.

1. New chat, the plus icon near the top of the left menubar, starts a fresh conversation.
2. Chats opens your conversation history.
3. Your initial at the bottom-left opens the profile menu, including Settings (section 02).

To begin, click into the message box, type a request in plain English, and send. The conversation is saved in Chats.

To work from your own material, click the plus (+) button at the left of the message box and attach a file: a PDF, a document, a spreadsheet or an image. The file becomes part of the conversation's context, and Claude draws on it alongside your request when it answers (more on context in section 06).

Treat Claude's first answer as a draft. Reply in the same chat with specific feedback on length, tone, format or audience.

Most controls sit around the message box.

Treat the chat box like a work brief. Include the source material, intended reader and a clear instruction.

Most account-level settings sit behind your profile menu.

1. Click the circle with your initial at the bottom-left.
2. Click Settings.
3. Settings opens as an overlay on the General tab.

Tell Claude how you work

In Settings → General, find Instructions for Claude, the box where Claude asks what it should consider in responses. What you write here applies to every chat.

1. Open Settings.
2. On the General tab, below your profile details, find Instructions for Claude.
3. Click into the instructions box.
4. Write a few lines on tone, length and format.
5. Save your changes if prompted. Every new chat from here follows these.

A shortcut: let Claude interview you

If you're not sure what to write, have Claude interview you. Paste this into a chat, answer a few questions, then copy the block it produces into the instructions box above.

Review your privacy and memory settings

While you are in Settings, take two minutes before your first real conversation. Review two controls and learn one privacy habit.

1. In Settings, open Privacy. Find Help improve our AI models, which controls whether eligible chats and coding sessions can be used to improve Claude, and choose deliberately.
2. Open Capabilities, find Memory, then click View and manage memory. Claude curates your memory file from your chat history. Review it periodically and edit if necessary.
3. Incognito chat is not saved to your history or memory. In Claude Enterprise, it is still logged. To activate, click on the ghost icon at the top right corner of the Claude window.

Claude comes in several model families and each is suited to different kinds of work. Switch between them in the model menu next to the send button. Fable and Opus handle harder work but run slower and use more tokens, so match the model to the task. Which models appear depends on your plan, region, feature rollout and, on Claude Enterprise, administrator settings.

Model	Reach for it when	What it is good at
Fable 5.1	A large assignment has several linked steps.	Planning and carrying a large assignment from start to finish.
Opus 5.5	Most work, especially anything that needs judgment.	Detailed analysis and difficult judgment calls.
Sonnet 5.5	You want a faster answer on routine work.	Simpler tasks such as short drafts and routine edits.
Haiku 4.5	You need a quick answer.	Summaries, quick lookups and simple extraction.

Model names will change. Use the descriptions in your account and keep the same basic rule: Opus for most work, Sonnet for faster routine work, Haiku for quick lookups and Fable for the largest assignments.

On models that support it, the same menu includes Effort. The model determines the capability tier; effort controls how much reasoning it applies. Higher effort can produce a more thorough answer, but it takes longer and uses more tokens. If Effort is missing for a model, use the default behavior or choose a model that exposes effort settings.

Level	When to use it
Low / Medium	Routine asks where speed matters. Uses fewer tokens.
High	The everyday balance of quality and speed for harder work.
Extra	Deeper reasoning for long-running, complex work, without Max's full cost.
Max	The hardest, get-it-right work. Deepest reasoning and slower.

The menu marks each model's recommended level with a Default badge. Trust the badge until you have a reason not to. Labels and availability can change; the options shown in your model menu are the source of truth for your account.

For everyday work the default is usually right. Raise it for complex tasks: document analysis, multi-step calculations, anything where being right beats being fast.

Give Claude the same brief you would give a capable colleague picking up the work cold: useful background and sources, the output, the reader, your preferences and what to avoid.

A prompt can cover six things: persona, context, output, audience, preferences and guardrails. Most tasks need only two or three.

Cover	What it settles	Say something like
Persona	What role Claude should play.	"Act as an investment analyst with experience evaluating private-market transactions."
Context	What facts, source material or background Claude should use.	"Use only the attached CIM. Treat missing information as unknown."
Output	What should come back and in what form.	"Prepare a two-page first-pass investment memo by summarizing the attached CIM. Lead with the conclusion, then a metrics table, summary of the deal and key risks."
Audience	Who will read it and what they care about.	"Write for a CIO deciding whether to run a first pass."
Preferences	What tone, format and level of detail Claude should follow.	"Use direct, concise language. Use a table for metrics and short paragraphs for analysis."
Guardrails	What Claude should avoid, flag or ask about before drafting.	"Cite the page for every number. Flag unsupported claims and never invent a figure."

Context is everything Claude can see when it answers: your message, the files you attach or paste, the chat so far and your instructions from section 02. Files, email and other material count only after you explicitly attach, paste or connect them. You choose what Claude sees.

Claude answers better when it has the right source material and knows who the work is for. Put reusable background in Instructions or a project so Claude can use it in each new chat.

A project keeps the same files and instructions available across its chats. Project instructions replace your global instructions inside that project.

1. In the left menubar, click Projects, then New project. Give it a name and briefly describe what you are trying to achieve.
2. Add project knowledge: templates, past examples, a style note. Loaded once and available to every chat inside the project.
3. Set the project instructions: your preferences and instructions for this Project only.
4. Start chatting. Every chat can use the project knowledge and instructions, so you skip the repeated setup.

Try it on a real document

1. Start a fresh chat and attach a non-sensitive document you understand well.
2. Use the prompt levers the task needs: persona, context, output, audience, preferences and guardrails.
3. Review the first answer and give one round of specific feedback.
4. Check every name, number, date and citation against the source.
5. If the work will recur, create a project and add the reusable files and instructions.

If you already use ChatGPT, this table shows the closest Claude equivalent.

In ChatGPT	In Claude	Section
Custom instructions	Instructions for Claude, in Settings.	02
Memory	Memory, reviewed and edited in Settings.	02
Temporary chat	Incognito chat: not saved to history or memory, and still subject to data retention policies.	02
Projects	Projects, with knowledge files and standing instructions.	07
A custom GPT	The closest match is a project for persistent knowledge and instructions. A skill is a reusable set of instructions for a specific procedure that Claude can activate when needed.	07
Canvas (now writing and code blocks)	Artifacts, opening in a side panel you can edit in place.	01
Deep research	Research, in the plus menu by the message box.	01
The model picker	The model menu next to send: Haiku, Sonnet, Opus and Fable, sized by task.	03