--- title: "Pick a model and know your limits" url: https://aiguideson.com/courses/claude-for-beginners/pick-a-model-and-know-your-limits/ course: "Claude for beginners" lesson: "2 of 5" minutes: 9 published: 2026-10-09 updated: 2026-10-09 author: "Jack Stovell" publisher: "Adapt Progress Evolve Limited" language: "en-GB" --- # Pick a model and know your limits Lesson 2 of 5 in [Claude for beginners](https://aiguideson.com/courses/claude-for-beginners/) · 9 minutes Claude lets you choose which model answers, how much effort it puts in, and whether it thinks first. The defaults are fine for most jobs. In this lesson you’ll find the menu, see what the Free plan includes, and learn what makes your usage run out sooner. ## You need - A Claude account (lesson 1) - About nine minutes A narrated walkthrough of this lesson is coming. The steps below cover everything in it. ## Steps ### Step 1: Find the model menu Start a chat. Next to the send button, you’ll see the model Claude is using, and its effort level. Click the model name to switch to another one, and click More models to see the rest. You can change it at any point in a chat, and the change applies from Claude’s next reply. ![Anthropic’s help page “Change the model, effort, and thinking settings”, showing the steps to change the model and the list of effort levels from Low to Max.](https://aiguideson.com/courses/claude-for-beginners/l2-model-menu.png) (screenshot captured 9 October 2026) 1. Click the model name next to the send button 2. Low and Medium: routine tasks, and your usage lasts longer 3. High: the best overall balance Checkpoint: You know where the model name is, and that you can change it mid-chat. ### Step 2: Choose an effort level Effort controls how much thinking Claude puts into a reply. Click the model name, then Effort, and pick a level. Anthropic says Low and Medium suit routine jobs, and they make your usage go further. High is the best overall balance, and Max is for the hardest jobs. Higher effort means more thorough replies, but slower ones, and you’ll hit your usage limits faster. Each model marks its recommended level as “Default”. (Screenshot to come.) Checkpoint: You know what Low, High and Max are for. ### Step 3: Know what thinking does Thinking lets Claude work through a problem before it replies, and you can open a “Thinking” section above the reply to read how it got there. Thinking and effort are separate settings. On some models, the thinking switch can’t be turned off, so you might not see it. For everyday jobs, like simple questions and general writing, Anthropic says the defaults work well. But raise the effort, or turn on thinking, for jobs like calculations, detailed document analysis or planning. (Screenshot to come.) Checkpoint: You know when to leave the defaults alone, and when to turn the settings up. ### Step 4: See what the Free plan includes Claude’s plans page lists the Free plan as “Free for everyone”. It includes chat on web, desktop and mobile, memory across conversations, and creating artifacts, which you’ll try in lesson 5. The page shows prices in your local currency, and our browser showed euros, so we don’t quote any here. Paid plans add more usage and more models. ![Claude’s plans and pricing page showing the Free plan, “Free for everyone”, next to the Pro and Max plans.](https://aiguideson.com/courses/claude-for-beginners/l2-claude-pricing.png) (screenshot captured 9 October 2026) 1. Claude: the Free plan Checkpoint: You know you’re on the Free plan, and what that means. ### Step 5: Understand usage limits A usage limit is how much you can use Claude over a stretch of time. On the Free plan, Claude’s help page says there’s a session limit that resets every five hours, and the number of messages you can send varies with demand. What uses your allowance faster? Long conversations, the features you use, the model you choose, and the effort level. If you hit the limit, wait for it to reset, or upgrade. A separate length limit is how long a single chat can get, so the fix there is to start a new chat. ![Anthropic’s help page “How do usage and length limits work?”, with the heading “What are usage limits?” and the paragraph on what affects your usage.](https://aiguideson.com/courses/claude-for-beginners/l2-usage-limits.png) (screenshot captured 9 October 2026) 1. Usage limits: how much you can use Claude over time 2. What uses more: long chats, the model and the effort level Checkpoint: You can say what makes your usage run out sooner. ## Common problems ### Claude says you’ve reached your limit On the Free plan the session limit resets every five hours. Wait, or start the job again later. Shorter chats and lower effort stretch your usage. ### You can’t find the effort setting The effort selector is only available for some models, and Anthropic changes the menus from time to time. Search the Claude Help Center for “Change the model, effort, and thinking settings”: the current steps are there. ### A model you expect is missing Click More models in the model menu. Which models you see depends on your plan. Every screenshot here is a public Anthropic page, captured by tools/capture/claude-for-beginners.mjs on 2026-10-09. The model menu and the Free plan’s limit message are inside a signed-in chat, so they have no screenshot yet. ## Sources - [Claude Help Center: Change the model, effort, and thinking settings](https://support.claude.com/en/articles/8664678-change-the-model-effort-and-thinking-settings) (checked 2026-10-09) - [Claude: Plans and pricing](https://claude.com/pricing) (checked 2026-10-09) - [Claude Help Center: How do usage and length limits work?](https://support.claude.com/en/articles/11647753-how-do-usage-and-length-limits-work) (checked 2026-10-09) - [Claude Help Center: Get started with Claude](https://support.claude.com/en/articles/8114491-get-started-with-claude) (checked 2026-10-09)