What would you hand to Claude first?
Your answers stay in this browser and build up into a setup plan for your company, one lesson at a time.
Pick something that takes more than an hour and is mostly reading or writing: the Monday sales summary, replies to the same supplier questions, notes from the weekly meeting.
A Pro plan is enough to start. Before you put company data into it, do step 5 below: on personal plans, chats can be used for training unless you switch that off.
Look at the Team plan. It gives you a shared workspace, one bill and admin controls, and it runs under commercial terms, so by default your chats aren't used for training.
Talk to IT before anyone installs anything. On a Team or Enterprise plan they can manage members and settings in one place. Lesson 7 covers those rules.
Where do your chats go?
Guess before you install anything. Step 5 shows you the answer.
Show the answer (after step 5)
Only if a setting is on. On Free, Pro, Max and Ultra plans, a switch under Settings › Privacy decides whether new chats can be used to improve Anthropic's models. Switching it off covers new chats; anything already used in training stays there.
Team and Enterprise plans run under commercial terms, the contract a company signs with Anthropic. By default, Anthropic doesn't train on those chats.
On every plan, if you send feedback with the thumbs up or down button, the whole chat goes to Anthropic with it and may be used for training.
Install, sign in, set up
Six steps. Tick each one when it's done.
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Download the app.
Open the download page and choose macOS or Windows.
claude.ai/download -
Install it.
Open the file you downloaded. You'll find it in your Downloads folder. Then follow the steps on screen.
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Open Claude.
On a Mac it's in Applications; on Windows, in the Start menu. Keep this page open in your browser and switch between the two windows.
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Sign in with your work email.
If your company already has a Team or Enterprise plan with single sign-on (you use your normal work login), choose Continue with SSO. You'll see your company's own login page. That's expected.
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Check the training setting.
Click your name or initials at the lower left, then open Settings › Privacy. On Free, Pro, Max and Ultra, find the switch called "Help Improve our AI models". If your company didn't set Claude up for you, you're on one of these plans. Switch it off before you paste in company documents.
On Team and Enterprise, commercial terms keep chats out of training by default, so there's nothing to change here. The exception is a thumbs up or down, which sends that chat to Anthropic with the feedback. An Owner can turn those buttons off with Rate chats, under Organization settings › Data and Privacy. Now open your answer under Predict.
Where your chats goSwitching it off covers new chats from then on. -
Tell Claude who you are.
Open Settings again and choose Your Claude (Account on older screens). Under Instructions, write who you are and how you like answers, for example: "I'm Sam. I run purchasing at a 40-person furniture wholesaler. Use euros and keep answers short."
This is your profile. Save it, then test it with the Check below.
If you see this instead
- Windows asks for an administrator password
- Claude still installs without administrator rights if you accept the offer to install it without Cowork, the part lesson 6 uses. For the full app, send IT the download link and ask them to install Claude for you.
- The Mac says Claude needs a newer macOS
- Claude Desktop needs macOS 13 or later. Use claude.ai in a browser until the Mac is updated. Most lessons work there too, and Cowork (lesson 6) also runs in the browser on paid plans.
- Sign-in opens a company login page you didn't expect
- Your company already has Claude Team or Enterprise. Sign in there. Your company's Owner may manage some of the settings in this lesson.
Does Claude know who you are?
Start a new chat in Claude and send this:
You pass when the answer uses what you wrote under Instructions in step 6.
If Claude says it knows nothing about you, open Settings › Your Claude to check your text is still there, then start a new chat and ask again. If you've chatted with Claude before, it may remember things from those chats, so look for a detail that only your Instructions contain.
Two questions from memory
Where do you check whether your chats can be used for training?
In Settings › Privacy, on Free, Pro, Max and Ultra plans.
Where did you tell Claude who you are and how you like answers?
In Settings › Your Claude, under Instructions. What you write there applies to all your chats.
Lesson 2 opens with the second question, and lesson 3 with the first.
Anthropic's free Claude 101 course covers everyday use. This course skips that and stays on your company's setup.
Your plan so far
What you've decided
- First task for Claude
- Who starts
- Training setting
- Profile