Brilliant vs Claude Design
Choose Claude Design if you live in Claude and want a one-pager, a deck or a clickable prototype from a conversation, on a plan you already have. Choose Brilliant if you want a professional vector design tool that Claude Code and other agents work in with you: a pen tool, components with variants, tokens with modes, and files you keep as text in git. Claude Design is a strong way to start. Brilliant is where a design system lives.
Should I choose Brilliant or Claude Design?
It comes down to how deep the design work goes, and which agents you want on it.
| Choose Brilliant if | Choose Claude Design if |
|---|---|
| You need a full design tool: vectors, booleans, components, variants, tokens | You want a first version from a chat, then light edits on the canvas |
| You want Claude Code, Cursor, Codex or another agent on the same canvas | You work in Claude and want design inside the same conversation |
| You want design files as plain text on your disk, with history in git | You want it stored and shared as a Claude artifact |
| You make logos, illustration and video as well as screens | You make one-pagers, decks and interactive prototypes |
How do Brilliant and Claude Design compare?
Both put a design on a canvas you can edit by hand, and both work with Claude Code. Each row on the Claude Design side links to the Anthropic page it was read from.
| What | Brilliant | Claude Design |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A professional vector design tool that agents work in, on the same canvas as you | "create designs, interactive prototypes, one-pagers, and other visual work by chatting with Claude" (Get started) |
| Runs on | macOS, Windows and the web | Any Claude conversation, the Artifacts tab, Claude Code, and the Claude apps for iOS and Android. The standalone site at claude. |
| A design is | Vectors, frames, components and tokens, drawn on the GPU | "a canvas of artboards. Each artboard holds layers, such as text, shapes, and images" (Get started). It exports as standalone HTML |
| Editing by hand | Everything, directly: pen paths, booleans, auto layout, text, effects | Drag, resize and align elements, edit text, and use a properties panel (Get started), plus the adjustment sliders Claude creates (product page) |
| Design systems | Tokens, modes and brands in one system you author. Every bound layer follows | Claude extracts colors, typography, components and layout patterns from your codebase or files. In beta, on paid plans (Design systems) |
| Agents | The built-in chat, or your own agent over MCP: Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, VS Code, Zed and more | Claude, in chat and in Claude Code through /design (Claude Code commands) |
| AI you can use | Brilliant AI, or your own provider: Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, OpenRouter and others | Your Claude plan. Design draws from the same usage pool as the rest of your work with Claude (Get started) |
| Export | PNG, JPEG, WebP, SVG, PDF, HTML and React, plus MP4, MOV and Replay video on desktop (MOV on macOS only) | A .zip, PDF, PPTX, Google Slides or standalone HTML, plus send to Canva, Adobe, Miro, Lovable, Replit, v0, Vercel, Wix and others (Get started) |
| Files and history | Blueprint: plain text on your disk that you read, diff and keep in git | An artifact in Claude, with a .zip download of the project files (Move from standalone). "Claude Design doesn’t have version history yet" (Get started) |
When is Brilliant the better pick?
Three situations, each one something you can check in the docs.
The work needs a real design tool
Draw an icon with the pen tool. Cut one shape from another with a live boolean. Turn a button into a component set with variants, and bind it to tokens that switch between light, dark and a second brand. This is the depth a design system needs, and it is all in Brilliant’s Free plan. See Vectors, Components and Modes and brands.
You want to pick the agent and the model
Brilliant is open to the agent you already use. Claude Code connects with one toggle, and so do Cursor, Codex, VS Code and Zed. Inside the app you can run Brilliant AI or connect your own provider and pay it directly. Canvas work for your own agents is unlimited on Free. See Connect your agent and Providers and models.
The design has to live in your repository
A Brilliant canvas is a plain text file. You commit it, diff it in a pull request, and go back to last Tuesday’s version with git. Your coding agent reads the same file when it builds the feature. See Blueprint files.
What does Claude Design do better today?
Quite a lot, if your work starts in Claude.
It is inside the conversation. Design works in any Claude chat, "where it can use your context, files, and connectors" (Anthropic, October 8, 2026).
Interactive prototypes. Claude Design turns mockups into "easily-shareable interactive prototypes" (launch post). In Brilliant you prototype with motion, and your agent builds a real prototype in code.
Decks and documents. It exports to PPTX and Google Slides and sends to Canva, Gamma and Miro (Get started).
Comments. People you share with can view, comment or edit, and you can comment on any element (Get started).
Phones. You can ask for a design and edit it in the Claude apps for iOS and Android (Get started). Brilliant runs on macOS, Windows and the web.
No extra plan. It is "included within every plan, including the Free plan" (product page).
What do they cost?
Both are free to start. Brilliant charges for private work and more Brilliant AI. Claude Design comes with a Claude plan and uses that plan’s limits.
| What | Brilliant | Claude Design |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Brilliant AI every month, every design feature, public projects and drops, 2 GB | Included in Claude’s Free plan, with limited usage every 5 hours and every week (Claude pricing) |
| One person | Personal $20 a month, Pro $50, Max $100, Max 20x $200 | Pro $20 a month, or $17 a month billed annually. Max $100, Ultra $200 (Claude pricing) |
| Teams | Seats from $25 a month, 2 seats minimum, 1 TB pooled | Team standard seat $25 a month, or $20 billed annually. Premium seat $125, or $100 billed annually (Claude pricing) |
For every Brilliant plan, see the pricing page.
Can I use Brilliant and Claude Design together?
Yes, and Claude Code is the bridge. Sketch a direction in Claude Design, then build the real thing in Brilliant with the same Claude Code session connected over MCP. Brilliant has no Claude Design importer today. To carry a screen across, export the artboard as a PNG (Claude Code commands), attach it in Brilliant’s chat, and ask your agent to rebuild it as real layers. See Claude Code setup.
Common questions
Is Claude Design free?
Yes. Anthropic says Claude Design is "included within every plan, including the Free plan" (product page), and that it came out of beta on October 8, 2026 (Anthropic). Many older articles still say it needs a paid plan.
Does Claude Design have its own usage limit?
Not any more. Anthropic’s help page says design activity "draws from the same pool as the rest of your work with Claude, including Claude Code" (Get started).
Can I export a Claude Design project to Figma?
Anthropic’s export list is a .zip, PDF, PPTX, Google Slides and standalone HTML, plus a set of partner tools. Figma is not on it as of November 11, 2026 (Get started). A design in Brilliant goes to Figma as native layers with Send to Figma. See Import and export.
Can Claude Code design in Brilliant?
Yes. Turn on the Claude Code row in Settings, MCP connections, restart Claude Code and ask it to design. It creates real, editable layers on the canvas you have open. See Claude Code setup.
Is Brilliant made by Anthropic?
No. Brilliant is an independent design tool. It works with Claude Code and with other agents and model providers.
Where next?
Try Brilliant in your browser, no account needed: open the playground.
Connect Claude Code: Claude Code setup.
See how tokens work: Design systems.
Compare Google’s design tool: Brilliant vs Stitch.
Compare Figma’s builder: Brilliant vs Figma Make.
See every plan on the pricing page.
Claude Design facts come from support.claude.com, claude.com, anthropic.com and code.claude.com, each linked where it is used, and were read on November 11, 2026. Tell us if something has moved.