Lesson 2.2 — Setting Up Your Free Accounts

A smartphone showing app icons on a bright desk

Estimated reading time: 13 minutes

There's a moment in every skill where you stop reading about it and actually do it. This is that moment. By the end of this lesson, you'll have live accounts with ChatGPT, Claude, and optionally Grok — and you'll understand exactly what you get on each free tier so there are no surprises.

Setting up these accounts takes about ten minutes total. You don't need a credit card for any of them. And you won't be charged for anything just by signing up.

Let's do it.

Setting Up ChatGPT

A laptop open to a clean sign-up page

Step 1: Go to the right place

Open your browser and go to chat.openai.com. Don't search for it — type the address directly. There are fake "ChatGPT" sites that look real but aren't. The real one has the OpenAI logo (a stylised hexagon) and lives at that exact address.

Step 2: Click "Sign up"

You'll see a simple page with two options: "Log in" and "Sign up." Click Sign up.

Step 3: Choose how to sign up

You have three options:

Continue with Google — creates an account linked to your Google account. Fastest option if you already use Gmail.
Continue with Microsoft — links to an Outlook or Hotmail account.
Email address — use any email you want. You'll verify it in a moment.

Any of these works. Most people find "Continue with Google" easiest because you skip the email verification step.

Step 4: Verify your email (if using email signup)

If you chose email signup, OpenAI will send a verification email to the address you provided. Open that email and click the "Verify email address" button inside it. This proves the account is yours.

Step 5: Enter your name and birthday

ChatGPT asks for your name (just first name is fine) and your date of birth. The birthday is used to verify you're 13 or older (18+ in some regions). This information isn't displayed publicly.

Step 6: You're in

That's it. You'll land on the main ChatGPT interface — a clean page with a text box at the bottom and some suggested prompts. You're ready to start chatting.

What You Get on the ChatGPT Free Tier

The free tier is genuinely useful, not a bait-and-switch. Here's what's included:

You get:

Access to GPT-4o mini — a fast, capable model good for most everyday tasks
Unlimited conversations (no hard cap on how many chats you can start)
Memory features (ChatGPT can remember things about you across conversations — you can turn this off if you prefer privacy)
Custom instructions (you can tell it your name, job, preferences, and it'll use them)
DALL-E image generation — limited uses per day

Limits on the free tier:

Heavy users may hit a rate limit during peak hours and have to wait
Some advanced features (like GPT-4o full, voice mode, and advanced data analysis) are restricted or require Plus
You get fewer messages per hour during busy periods

What ChatGPT Plus ($20/month) adds:

Priority access to the fastest, most capable GPT-4o model
More messages per hour
Advanced features including extended voice mode, more image generation, and access to new features first

Key takeaway: The free tier is a real, useful product — not a trial. Start there. If you find yourself hitting limits regularly after a few weeks of use, then consider Plus. Most beginners don't need it right away.

Setting Up Claude

Step 1: Go to claude.ai

Open a new tab and go to claude.ai. Again, type it directly — don't search. Anthropic's site is clean and simple: you'll see a short description of Claude and a sign-up button.

Step 2: Click "Sign up"

Click the Sign up button. As with ChatGPT, you can sign up with Google for speed, or use any email address.

Step 3: Verify your email

If you're using email (not Google), you'll get a verification code sent to your inbox. It's a 6-digit number that you type into the box on screen. Open your email, find the message from Anthropic (subject line will be something like "Verify your email"), and type in the code. It expires after a few minutes, so do this promptly.

Step 4: Accept the terms

Claude's sign-up is minimal. You accept the usage terms, and you're done. No birthday, no lengthy form.

Step 5: You're in

You'll arrive at a clean chat interface. There's a text box at the bottom, some example conversation starters, and a list of previous conversations on the left sidebar (empty for now, since you just signed up).

What You Get on the Claude Free Tier

You get:

Access to Claude Sonnet — Anthropic's mid-tier model, which is genuinely impressive and not a cut-down version
Long context window — you can paste in very long documents and Claude will read them
Unlimited conversation starts (you can begin new conversations anytime)
Good quality writing and analysis for everyday tasks

Limits on the free tier:

Daily message limits — you get a set number of messages per day. The exact number isn't published, but most people doing normal tasks don't hit the limit. Heavy users might.
When you hit the limit, you'll see a message like "You've reached your daily limit" and need to wait until the next day (or upgrade)
No access to Claude Opus, the most powerful model in the Claude family

What Claude Pro ($20/month) adds:

5x more usage than the free tier
Access to Claude Opus (the most powerful model)
Priority access during high-demand periods
Projects feature — you can organise conversations and give Claude persistent context about a specific project

Key takeaway: Claude's free tier is excellent for reading, writing, and research tasks. The daily limit is generous enough that most beginners won't hit it. Sign up, try it for a week, and see if you need more.

Navigating the Interface: A Quick Tour

Both ChatGPT and Claude have similar layouts. Here's what you'll see:

Left sidebar:

Your conversation history — every chat you've had is saved here, listed by date
A "New chat" button to start fresh
On Claude, you'll also see "Projects" once you've created any

Main area:

An empty chat canvas when you start a new conversation
The conversation history once you're in a chat

The text box at the bottom:

This is where you type your messages
Press Enter or Shift+Enter to send (or click the arrow button)
You can also attach files and images using the paperclip or image icon

Settings (usually in the bottom left or top right):

On ChatGPT: your account settings are under your name in the bottom left
On Claude: the settings icon is in the top right

Setting Up Grok (Optional)

Website: grok.com
Free tier: Yes — grok.com gives you access to Grok without needing X Premium
Also available: Built directly into X (Twitter) if you already use it

Go to grok.com and sign in with your X (Twitter) account, or create a free account. If you already use X, Grok is also accessible via the sidebar — look for the Grok icon on the left navigation.

What you get free: Access to Grok with a generous daily message limit, real-time web search, and image generation via the Aurora model.

What X Premium adds ($8–16/month): Higher usage limits and deeper integration across the X platform.

Grok is worth signing up for if you want a real-time news-aware assistant or a second opinion from a model with a different personality to Claude and ChatGPT.

Privacy: What Happens to Your Conversations?

This is a legitimate question, and you should know the answer before you type anything sensitive.

ChatGPT: By default, your conversations may be used to train future versions of OpenAI's models. You can turn this off in Settings → Data Controls → toggle off "Improve the model for everyone." If you do this, your conversations are stored for 30 days and then deleted. If you're on a paid plan, model training is off by default.

Claude: Anthropic stores your conversations to provide the service. If you're on the free tier, Anthropic may review conversations for safety and quality purposes. On Claude Pro, there are stronger privacy protections. You can delete your conversation history at any time.

Grok: xAI may use conversations to improve the model. Your conversations on X are subject to X's privacy policy. As with other tools, avoid sharing sensitive personal or business information.

Practical advice: Don't paste in anything you'd be uncomfortable with a company employee potentially reading during a review. That means no passwords, no sensitive financial details, no private medical information about others, no confidential work documents unless your organisation has approved it.

Organising Your New Accounts

Before you move on, take two minutes to do these things:

Bookmark your tools — add chat.openai.com, claude.ai, and grok.com to your browser's bookmarks bar. You'll use them often.
Use a password manager — if you signed up with email rather than Google, save your password somewhere safe. Using your browser's built-in password manager is fine.
Note your email — make sure you remember which email address you used for each. It's easy to mix up if you have multiple email accounts.
Try one message — before moving to the next lesson, type "Hello! I'm new here. What can you help me with?" in both ChatGPT and Claude (and Grok if you signed up). See how each one responds differently. This takes two minutes and immediately shows you why having options matters.

Up next: Lesson 2.3 covers what it actually feels like to use AI chat for the first time — and how to have a conversation that gets you something genuinely useful.