Product

Claude Code

Claude Code is a coding agent that reads your codebase, edits files, runs commands and connects to your development tools. It runs in the terminal, VS Code, JetBrains, a desktop app and the browser, and installing it is free, but it does not run without a Claude subscription or a Console account.

  • five surfaces
  • MCP and hooks
  • subscription required

current Maker: Anthropic

Last checked: This is a reference page. It is re-checked against the vendor sources and updated when a new version ships. What changed

How it differs from an in-editor code assistant

An ordinary assistant suggests the next line. Claude Code carries a task to the end: it plans, edits several files, runs the tests, and goes back and fixes things when the result is wrong. That is the practical difference, and you feel it in how long a task takes rather than in the quality of any single line.

The thing that matters more in practice than the model

The CLAUDE.md file in your project root. Claude Code reads it at the start of every session, and that is where a team writes its coding standards, architecture decisions and preferred libraries. Our experience is that a precise CLAUDE.md moves output quality more than switching model does, and no benchmark table shows that.

MCP, which turns the difference from code into workflow

With the Model Context Protocol you can attach outside sources: a design doc in Google Drive, a ticket in Jira, data in Slack, or your own internal tooling. That is where the tool goes from "write code" to "finish the task". Wiring up a first MCP server is half an hour of work and it pays back earliest.

The real constraint for an Iranian user

Installing is not the problem. The subscription is: it will not run without a Claude subscription or an Anthropic Console account, and Iran is not on Anthropic supported-countries list. We neither recommend circumvention nor sell accounts.

Specifications

Where it ships Terminal CLI, VS Code, JetBrains, Desktop app, Web, Slack, GitHub Actions Source
Free tier no Source

Using it from Iran

We check this ourselves from an Iranian connection, because no vendor documents it and every listicle guesses.

Reachable
blocked
Payment
no working route
Free tier
no
Measured on

How we checked: The tool installs for free but needs a Claude subscription or an Anthropic Console account to work, and Iran is on neither of Anthropic two supported-countries lists. We read that on Anthropic own page rather than measuring it.

Where to actually buy it

The routes that really exist, each with its hidden cost.

Buying direct from the vendor not from Iran

Claude Code runs on the same Anthropic account, and Iran is not on the supported-countries list. For this tool the API credit route makes the most sense, since it is a command line tool and a mobile app subscription buys it nothing.

Anthropic supported countries read on 12 August 2026

Route What it is and how you pay What it costs you that is not the price
OpenRouter API credit One API in front of models from several vendors, sold as prepaid credit rather than a monthly subscription. Tops up with major cards, AliPay and USDC, at a 5.5 percent card fee with a $0.80 minimum or 5 percent on crypto. It passes provider pricing through without a markup. It is not a subscription, so nothing that lives in the vendor app reaches you: no mobile app, no conversation memory, no projects. For someone who only wants to chat in a browser this is the wrong route; it pays off for people writing code or wiring up their own tool. On small top-ups the percentage fee bites.
Bitrefill virtual Visa and Mastercard prepaid card Bitrefill sells virtual prepaid cards for crypto: a Digital Prepaid Visa from $20 to $1000 and a Virtual Prepaid Mastercard from $20 to $500. It takes Bitcoin, Lightning, Ethereum, USDC, USDT, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Solana and several more. Unlike a marketplace account, whatever you sign up for with this card is yours from day one. A prepaid card is not a full substitute for a credit card. Some services refuse prepaid BIN ranges and the payment just fails without a clear message, and next month's automatic renewal fails too if the card balance has run down, cutting the subscription off mid-use. Leftover balance is usually not withdrawable.
Plati.market reseller market A Russian digital-goods marketplace of independent sellers. It does sell AI subscriptions, and its front page lists ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Cursor and Grok, most tagged for automatic delivery. Prices show in rubles, dollars, euros and hryvnia. You are buying from an anonymous seller, not from the vendor. What arrives is usually access to an account that is not yours, and nearly every one of these services forbids account transfer in its terms, so the account can be reclaimed or closed at any moment with nobody to appeal to. The seller keeps the password and the recovery email, so treat anything you type into that account as readable by someone else.

We do not sell accounts, we take no commission on any of these routes, and there is no referral link in this table. The hidden-cost column is our own judgement, not the service's claim; anything with a source has the link beside it.

What it is good at

  • Carries a task to the end: plan, multi-file edit, run the tests, correct itself
  • Runs on five surfaces with settings and MCP servers shared across all of them
  • CLAUDE.md hands the team rules to the tool every session, with no manual repetition
  • Pipeable on the command line and runnable in CI, so it fits an existing workflow

Where it falls short

  • It does not run at all without a Claude subscription or an Anthropic Console account.
  • There is no official route for an Iranian user, because Iran is not on the supported-countries list.
  • The desktop app explicitly requires a paid subscription and has no free version.
  • On native Windows without Git for Windows it falls back to PowerShell instead of Bash, which changes how commands behave.

Our take

If you have a real repository and a lot of repetitive work, this earns its place over a code assistant. The first thing to do is write CLAUDE.md, not switch model: that half hour has returned more than any model upgrade we have made.

Questions people actually ask

Is Claude Code free

Installing is free; running it is not. Its own docs say most surfaces require a Claude subscription or an Anthropic Console account, and the desktop app explicitly requires a paid subscription.

How is Claude Code different from Claude

Claude is a chat app. Claude Code is an agent that edits files and runs commands inside your project. The model underneath can be the same one.

Can you use Claude Code from Iran

There is no official route. Iran is not on Anthropic supported-countries list and payment does not go through. We do not recommend circumvention.

Sources

  1. Claude Code docs, Overview vendor source 12 August 2026
  2. Anthropic supported countries vendor source 12 August 2026