No terminal, no tech talk. Ten steps, each with a plain explanation and a tip
Download the Claude app. Open claude.com in your browser and click the Download button near the top. Grab the version for your computer, Mac or Windows, and run the installer. It takes about a minute and you do not need to configure anything. A tip from my own setup, start with the Desktop app even if you already use Claude in the browser, because the real power of Claude runs through the Desktop app later and you want that base installed from day one.
Create a free account. Open the app and sign in with email or with your Google account. No credit card, no trial countdown, no expiration. The free plan is real and generous enough to use Claude for testing without paying anything. A tip, use the same email you already use for work, because any plan you upgrade to later will attach to that account and you do not want two Claude identities floating around.
Export your ChatGPT history. Before you touch anything inside Claude, go to ChatGPT one more time. Click your profile icon at the bottom left, then Settings, then Data Controls, and hit Export Data. OpenAI will send you a zip file to your email within 24 to 48 hours. It contains every chat you ever had and everything you told ChatGPT about yourself. A tip, do the export now even if you are not fully sure you want to switch, because the email takes a day or two and you want the data ready when you need it.
Load your history into Claude. When the email arrives, download the zip. Inside Claude, go to Settings, then Capabilities, then turn Memory on. There is a button called Import memory from other AI providers. Drop the zip in and Claude reads everything it needs to remember about you. A tip, if that feels like too much at once, just open a fresh chat and paste a five sentence summary of who you are and what you do. Claude remembers that too. Both paths work, pick whichever feels less intimidating.
Create your first Project. A Project in Claude is a dedicated folder for one topic. Your business. One client. A research theme. Every conversation inside a Project shares the same context, so Claude does not forget between chats. Create one right now, even if you only put the name of your business in it. A tip, do not try to organise everything at once, just make one Project for the thing you work on the most. You can always split it later when it grows.
Teach Claude about your work by just talking to it. Here is the part that sounds too good to be true. You do not configure anything by hand. Just open a chat and say something like this. I run a small accounting firm, we use Google Workspace and Stripe, please remember this and keep a formal tone for everything client facing. Claude writes it down and remembers. A tip, do this one conversation at a time, do not dump your whole life into the first message. Add details when they come up naturally.
Try the normal Chat mode first. Now the familiar part. The Chat window in Claude works just like ChatGPT. Ask questions, brainstorm, draft emails, summarise documents, translate. Two things feel different right away. The writing sounds more human, less of that obvious AI tone. And Claude does not agree with everything you say, it pushes back when your idea has a weak spot. A tip, ask the same question you would normally ask ChatGPT and compare the answers side by side for a week. You will notice the difference on your own.
Activate Cowork for real tasks with files. Cowork is where Claude stops being a chatbot and starts actually doing things for you. It is a mode inside the Desktop app that can open, read and change files, run multi step tasks, and work through long jobs without you holding its hand. You switch it on inside the Desktop app in the sidebar. The first time feels a bit strange because Claude shows you what it is doing in real time. A tip, start with a tiny task like summarise every PDF in this folder and give me a one page overview. Seeing Cowork run once is the moment most people understand what Claude is actually about.
If you want less talk and more results, use Claude Code. you can swap the mode in the header. I use it every day, even for work that has nothing to do with code. Research, emails, long documents, pulling data out of a mess. The reason is simple, Claude Code is more direct and more goal oriented. It skips the polite chatty part and just does the thing you asked for. A tip, if you ever catch yourself wishing Claude would stop talking and just do the task, switch to Claude Code instead of using the chat mode, the tone is sharper and it saves you real time.
Level up when you are ready. Once the basics feel comfortable, there is a next layer worth learning. Six terms that turn Claude from a chat tool into something that really feels like your own assistant. CLAUDE.md, Skills, Hooks, Subagents, MEMORY.md and MCP. Do not dig into those now, it will overwhelm you. Come back to them in a week, once steps one to nine feel normal. A tip, start with CLAUDE.md alone when the time comes, it is the easiest to understand and the one you will use most.
Matthias Meyer
Founder & AI Director at StudioMeyer. Has been building websites and AI systems for 10+ years. Living on Mallorca for 15 years, running an AI-first digital studio with its own agent fleet, 680+ MCP tools and 6 SaaS products for SMBs and agencies across DACH and Spain.
