Does Claude’s flat pricing structure exclude users in countries with a lower average income?
Affordability Visualisation
Subscription cost as a percentage of median monthly income across 20 countries. Use the toggles to switch between Claude Pro ($20/mo), Claude Max ($100/mo), and Claude Max ($200/mo). Orange bars are above the reference line; grey bars are below. The orange vertical line marks the highest-burden country, the white line shows the median or mean across all countries.
For someone in Nigeria, Claude Pro costs 30× more of their income than it does for someone in Switzerland
Affordability Analysis
Anthropic charges the same flat price everywhere in the world — $20 a month for Claude Pro, $100 or $200 for Claude Max. Seems simple and fair, right? But it means very different things depending on where you live.
For Claude Pro, Nigeria bears the highest burden: at around $150 median monthly income, the $20 subscription costs over 13% of what a typical person earns. In Switzerland, where median income is $4,500, it’s just 0.44% — a 30-times difference in affordability. Switch to Claude Max at $200 a month and that Nigerian figure rises above 133%, meaning the subscription costs more than an entire month’s income.
The white dashed line lets you toggle between the median and mean cost across all countries. They tell different stories: the median shows the middle point (half of countries pay more, half less), while the mean is pulled upward by high-burden outliers like Nigeria and India. The gap between the two is a measure of how unequal the distribution is.
View data table
| Country | Median Monthly Income (USD) | Claude Pro Price (USD) | % of Income |
|---|---|---|---|
| India | $200 | $20.00 | 10.00% |
| Nigeria | $150 | $20.00 | 13.33% |
| Brazil | $450 | $20.00 | 4.44% |
| South Africa | $550 | $20.00 | 3.64% |
| Mexico | $600 | $20.00 | 3.33% |
| Turkey | $650 | $20.00 | 3.08% |
| China | $800 | $20.00 | 2.50% |
| Poland | $900 | $20.00 | 2.22% |
| Portugal | $1100 | $20.00 | 1.82% |
| Spain | $1600 | $20.00 | 1.25% |
| Italy | $1800 | $20.00 | 1.11% |
| South Korea | $2200 | $20.00 | 0.91% |
| France | $2300 | $20.00 | 0.87% |
| United Kingdom | $2400 | $20.00 | 0.83% |
| Japan | $2500 | $20.00 | 0.80% |
| Germany | $2600 | $20.00 | 0.77% |
| Canada | $2800 | $20.00 | 0.71% |
| Australia | $3000 | $20.00 | 0.67% |
| United States | $3500 | $20.00 | 0.57% |
| Switzerland | $4500 | $20.00 | 0.44% |
Methodology and data processing
Data collection
I gathered median monthly income figures from the OECD, World Bank, and national statistics offices. Where only annual income was published, I divided by 12 to get monthly figures.
Currency conversion
All income figures and subscription prices are converted to US dollars using market exchange rates as of February 2026.
Why median income?
Median income is more representative of what a typical person earns than the mean (average). Mean income gets distorted by extremely high earners, making it look like people earn more than they actually do. The median is the middle point—half of people earn more, half earn less.
Limitations
These are national median figures, which hide a lot of variation within countries. Urban residents typically earn more than rural ones, and income inequality varies massively between countries. The true affordability burden for lower-income people is likely higher than shown here. I’ve also used market exchange rates rather than purchasing power parity (PPP) adjustments, to reflect the actual dollar price people pay.
Data sources: Claude Pro pricing from Anthropic. Median monthly income estimates (2024) from the OECD, World Bank, and national statistics offices. All income figures converted to USD at current exchange rates. Data correct as of .