21 Claude Hacks to Maximize Your $20 Plan

Don't upgrade to the $100 Claude plan if you keep hitting token limits. Instead, use these 21 hacks to make the $20/month subscription enough: Hack 1. Do not upload PDFs in Claude. It costs a huge amount of tokens. Paste the text into a Google Doc & download it as .md. it is not the same. Hack 2. Figure out the solution in Chat on Fable 5 High & then move to Opus 5 on High effort to execute the task. Hack 3. Start any new Claude chat with this prompt: “I need [task] for [goal]. I will know it worked when [target]. Ask me questions first, using the AskUserQuestion tool.” Hack 4. When one specific thing is wrong, fix that section, not the entire thing. Prompt: "Only redo section 3. Keep everything else. Just the output." Hack 5. Give the entire task at one go, not one problem after another in different prompts. Like: "Summarize this, list the points, suggest a headline" Hack 6. Stop sending follow-up prompts like "no, I meant...". Click 'Edit' on your original message to fix a specific problem. Hack 7. Turn your repeated prompts into Claude Skills. It saves you time & tokens. Hack 8. Use Sonnet only for grammar checks. I'd use ChatGPT, not even Sonnet. Use Fable for complex tasks. Use Opus to execute the tasks. Hack 9. Do not create .md files as a part of workflow. It's too much work for less outcome. Instead turn them into Claude Skills. Hack 10. When Claude starts to hallucinate, click "edit" on an earlier message. Hack 11. Once you send 15-20 prompts in a chat. Do not continue with that chat; instead, ask for a summary. Copy the brief. Open a fresh chat. Hack 12. Put files in a Project. Now every chat inside that project has the same context overall. Hack 13. Upload only the files a single task needs. Do not unnecessarily give context; it makes it less creative. Hack 14. One chat for one problem. It doesn't need more explanation. Hack 15. Turn off search & connectors. Switch them on if you need them for a task. Hack 16. Use Claude Schedule for mundane tasks over weeks. Type /schedule: "Every Monday at 7 am, create my weekly briefing." Hack 17. This is for people who use Claude Code. Point Claude Code at the file, not the whole repo. "Build a bar chart from this CSV. Save as chart.png." Hack 18. Go to Claude settings > Personal Preferences. Set your tone. Hack 19. "Make it better" doesn't mean anything in Claude's language. Give more context. I speak my prompts with wispr .ai to give the full context at one go. Hack 20. Claude uses a rolling 5-hour window. So I usually send something right when I arrive at the office and then early + late afternoon. So about 3 sessions. Hack 21. Claude is not an all-rounder model. It can't generate good images. Use ChatGPT for image generation. I have been using these hacks, not only to save tokens but also to get more creativity out of Claude. I'm a psycho when it comes to using Claude (better). And I squeezed every personal tip into this one PDF. Get it here: https://t.co/KNO2y4RkYr