Claude Academy (2026): Every Free Course and What to Take First
by Sandlabs Team, Founder, Sandlabs
Quick answer. Claude Academy is Anthropic's free learning site at academy.claude.com, launched on 20 August 2026 to replace the older Anthropic Academy courses on Skilljar. It has 28 free courses, from Claude 101 and AI Fluency for business users to Claude Code, MCP and the Claude API for developers. You sign in with any Claude account, including Free, and passing a course's quizzes earns a completion badge you can add to LinkedIn. Badges are not the same as Anthropic's paid, proctored Claude certifications, which are a separate program for partner organisations. Start with Claude 101 if you use Claude at work, AI Fluency for small businesses if you run one, and Claude Code 101 if you write code.
Everything below was checked against Claude Academy and Anthropic's own pages on 31 October 2026.
What Claude Academy is
Claude Academy is where Anthropic now puts all of its free training.
The old anthropic.com/learn address redirects there, and the site is also linked from Learn more in the Claude app's profile menu.
What you need to know before you start:
- It is free. You can browse the catalogue without signing in. Signing in saves your progress and lets you earn badges, and any Claude account works, including the Free plan.
- There is no separate account. You sign in with your Claude login and authorise Academy once.
- Badges, not certificates. Pass all of a course's quizzes and you get a completion badge, with a PDF, a LinkedIn share and a public verification link. Retakes are unlimited and badges do not expire.
- Skilljar progress can come with you. If you did Anthropic's courses on the old Skilljar site, you can import that progress as long as the email address matches your Claude account. Certificates earned there are still yours.
- Some courses need a paid plan to follow along. Claude 101 works on any plan, but Claude Code 101 assumes Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise or an API key, because Claude Code is not on Free.
The full course catalogue
Anthropic groups the 28 courses into five sections. Lesson counts, quiz counts and times are from each course page.
Start your journey
| Course | Who it is for | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Claude 101 | Anyone starting with Claude at work, on any plan | 13 lessons, 1 quiz, ~2.5 hrs |
| Claude Code 101 | Developers new to Claude Code | 12 lessons, 1 quiz, ~1.5 hrs |
| Introduction to Claude Cowork | Professionals handing off multi-step work | 14 lessons, 1 quiz, ~2.5 hrs |
| Introduction to Claude Tag | Teams using Claude in Slack (beta) | 11 lessons, 1 quiz, ~2.5 hrs |
| Claude Platform 101 | Developers new to the Claude API | 13 lessons, 1 quiz, ~1.5 hrs |
Learn the products
| Course | Who it is for | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Code in action | Developers running longer, hands-off sessions | 9 lessons, 1 quiz, ~1 hr |
| Introduction to Model Context Protocol | Developers building MCP servers and clients in Python | 10 lessons, 1 quiz, ~1 hr |
| Model Context Protocol: Advanced topics | MCP developers (sampling, notifications, roots, transports) | 11 lessons, 1 quiz, ~1.5 hrs |
| Introduction to subagents | Claude Code users | 4 lessons, no quiz, ~45 min |
| Introduction to agent skills | Claude Code users | 6 lessons, no quiz, ~1 hr |
| The AI-native SDLC playbook | Engineering, platform and security leads | 14 lessons, no quiz, ~1 hr |
| Deploying Claude Enterprise with confidence | Whoever owns an Enterprise rollout | 14 lessons, 1 quiz, ~2.5 hrs |
Become AI fluent
| Course | Who it is for | Length |
|---|---|---|
| AI Fluency: Framework and foundations | Everyone; Anthropic's "4D" framework for working with AI | 14 lessons, 1 quiz, ~4 hrs |
| AI capabilities and limitations | Beginners | 13 lessons, 1 quiz, ~3.5 hrs |
| Building effective human-agent teams (beta) | Teams and leaders | 5 lessons, 1 quiz, ~45 min |
AI Fluency, for your world
| Course | Who it is for | Length |
|---|---|---|
| AI Fluency for small businesses | SMB owners and staff | 8 lessons, 1 quiz, ~3.5 hrs |
| AI Fluency for builders | People building with AI | 9 lessons, 1 quiz, ~3 hrs |
| AI Fluency for creative work | Creative professionals | 8 lessons, 1 quiz, ~5 hrs |
| AI Fluency for nonprofits | Nonprofit staff | 9 lessons, 1 quiz, ~4 hrs |
| AI Fluency for students | Students | 5 lessons, 1 quiz, ~3 hrs |
| AI Fluency for educators | Faculty and instructional designers | 4 lessons, 1 quiz, ~1.5 hrs |
| AI Fluency for pK-12 educators | School teachers (made with Teach For America) | 10 lessons, 1 quiz, ~3 hrs |
| AI Fluency for pK-12 Train the Trainer | School professional-development leads | 4 lessons, no quiz, ~45 min |
| Teaching AI Fluency | Faculty teaching AI fluency to others | 7 lessons, 1 quiz, ~4.5 hrs |
Build with the API
| Course | Who it is for | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Building with the Claude API | Developers; the most complete technical course | 67 lessons, 8 quizzes, ~9 hrs |
| Tool use with the Messages API | Developers whose tool use already works | 9 lessons, 1 quiz, ~1.5 hrs |
| Claude with Amazon Bedrock | AWS developers | 65 lessons, 8 quizzes, ~8 hrs |
| Claude on Google Cloud | Google Cloud developers | 66 lessons, 9 quizzes, ~8.5 hrs |
Courses without a quiz do not award a badge.
What to take first, by role
Anthropic does not publish numbered learning paths, so here is the order we give our own clients.
Business user, any industry. Claude 101, then Introduction to Claude Cowork, then AI Fluency: Framework and foundations. That is about nine hours, and covers the app, handing off longer tasks, and the habits that make the output trustworthy.
Small business owner. Claude 101, then AI Fluency for small businesses. Six hours, and the second course is the one that gets you thinking about where Claude fits in the business rather than in one person's inbox.
Developer. Claude Code 101, then Claude Code in action, then Introduction to agent skills and Introduction to subagents. Add Introduction to Model Context Protocol when you need Claude to reach your own systems, and Building with the Claude API when you are shipping Claude inside a product.
Whoever is rolling Claude out to a team. Claude 101 yourself, then Deploying Claude Enterprise with confidence (useful on Team too), then Building effective human-agent teams. Assign Claude 101 to everyone else before they get a seat.
Teacher or lecturer. AI Fluency: Framework and foundations first (Anthropic recommends it before Teaching AI Fluency), then the educator course that matches your level.
Badges vs Claude certifications
This is the part most people get wrong.
| Claude Academy badge | Claude certification | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free | US$99 to US$175 per exam attempt |
| Who can get it | Anyone with a Claude account | People at Claude Partner Network organisations, with a company email |
| How | Pass a course's quizzes, retake as often as you like | Proctored exam, online or at a Pearson test centre |
| Issued by | Claude Academy | Credly |
| Expires | Never | Yes, credentials have to be renewed |
Anthropic says plainly that Academy badges are separate from the certification exams, and it does not map Academy courses to specific exams. The free courses are still the best preparation for the underlying knowledge. Our Claude certification guide covers all four exams, what they test, what they cost in AUD and whether your team should bother.
Stuck on a quiz question?
Course quizzes test concepts that trip up a lot of people, and the questions show up in Google searches more than you would expect. Rather than an answer key, here are our plain-English explainers for the concepts people search for most:
- Skills vs plugins (Claude 101 and Cowork): Claude plugins vs skills explains how they relate, including both versions of the "relationship between skills and plugins" question.
- Hooks (Claude Code): our Claude Code hooks guide lists every hook event and covers the classic "stop Claude reading .env files" scenario.
- Enterprise search setup (Team and Enterprise): who has to set it up, and the rest of the business-plan detail, is in Claude Team vs Enterprise.
- Plans and usage limits: Claude usage limits explained and Claude Free vs Pro.
Using Claude Academy for a team
If your organisation is on Claude Team or Enterprise:
- Progress counts for the organisation only when people take courses signed in to the organisation's Claude account. Courses taken on a personal account can be moved across.
- Org reports are available to Owners, Admins and anyone with the Analytics permission: a CSV of who enrolled, completed and earned a badge, and when. Quiz scores, attempts and time spent are never shown.
- People must be added to your Claude organisation first, by an admin, before their Academy progress shows up in your reports.
- "Claude in Academy" (Claude helping inside the courses) can be switched on or off by an owner under Admin settings → Claude Academy. Questions asked there count towards each person's normal usage.
- There is no way to assign courses from the admin side yet, so a short internal "do these two courses before your seat goes live" message still does the job.
Claude Academy also has a free, read-only MCP connector (https://academy.claude.com/mcp) that lets Claude search course content, which is handy for "which course covers X?" questions.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Claude Academy?
Claude Academy is Anthropic's free learning site at academy.claude.com, launched on 20 August 2026 to replace the older Anthropic Academy courses on Skilljar. It has 28 free courses for business users, educators and developers, and passing a course's quizzes earns a completion badge.
Is Claude Academy free?
Yes. Every course is free. You can browse without signing in, and signing in with any Claude account, including the Free plan, saves your progress and lets you earn badges. Some courses, such as Claude Code 101, are easier to follow with a paid plan because Claude Code is not on Free.
Is Anthropic Academy the same as Claude Academy?
Yes. Anthropic Academy was the earlier name for Anthropic's courses on Skilljar. They now live at academy.claude.com as Claude Academy, anthropic.com/learn redirects there, and Skilljar progress can be imported if your email address matches your Claude account.
Do Claude Academy courses give you a certificate?
They give a completion badge when you pass all of a course's quizzes, with a PDF, a LinkedIn share and a verification link. Badges never expire. They are not the same as Anthropic's paid Claude certifications, which are proctored exams for people at partner organisations.
Which Claude Academy course should I take first?
Claude 101 if you use Claude at work, AI Fluency for small businesses if you run one, and Claude Code 101 if you write code. Developers building Claude into products should move on to Building with the Claude API, the most complete technical course at about nine hours.
Training is the easy half of a Claude rollout. The hard half is the setup people train on: plans, data settings, connectors and the first Skills. Our Claude Done-For-You Setup does that part, so the courses land on a workspace that is ready.