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Claude's signup workflow is terrible

Article news.ycombinator.com

Claude's signup workflow is terrible

I used claude via the web console for a while, then thought I'd want to go for higher limits, and API usage.

I click and end up here https://claude.ai/upgrade.

Does it say anything about API or not? Does it explain what the usage limits are? How often they reset?

No.

Does it really tell me anything? Not really.

No indication of limits, reset timeframes, API usage or not, context window, and 'max'? Why, 20x that! Whatever 'that' is.

Then I discover there's some entirely other, per usage plan? For API? I still don't know if the monthly plans cover API usage. Maybe I need to pay for Pro and an API account? Well that sucks?!

When I click on the API tab, I eventually am told I need a 'claude console' account. When I click on that, I'm told to 'buy credits'. OK.

When I enter the API tab, it asks me what type of org I am. OK, I answer truthfully. Now apparently for all time I'm stuck in that category? It looked like pricing was different for each category, did I just make a big mistake?

Understand, I know nothing about Claude billing, costs, API usage, limits, and ... well, they don't seem too keen on being exceptionally forthcoming.

Maybe I'm supposed to use Claude to tell me? On the free plan? When I try, there seems to be no way to get back to the web console to just ask a question. I'm stuck on some weird 'api' page now. I manually edit the url, and find the web console, and ask.

https://claude.ai/share/9041f6c8-3acc-4392-beb4-81734ad6112f

Does it reference internal docs? Uh, no. Instead, all the links are to external websites. Why on Earth would I want Claude to tell me what random websites on the web, have to say about usage plans for Claude?

Shouldn't Claude just know? Shouldn't it point me to specific claude.ai web pages, and quote that info?

If you look at the dropdown for 'searched the web, viewed a file', it says 'failed to fetch' for the file.. which I saw a brief 'unable to access support docs' when it tried.

All I can say is, these guys have access to free Claude, shouldn't this entire signup process be easy to script? Code?

Shouldn't at least Claude be able to access Claude pricing docs?

Discussion 0 comments · 3 points · b112 · 2026-05-09
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