Does Claude Code work on Windows?
Yes, natively — no WSL required. We ran CLI 2.1.170 on Windows 11 build 26200 from a native claude.exe, and a round-trip prompt came back in 6.8 seconds. Install with the PowerShell one-liner or WinGet. One caveat to settle first: with Git for Windows installed, Claude Code uses bash for shell commands; without it, it falls back to PowerShell.
claude.exe, not a WSL shim ✓ Three install routes — PowerShell, CMD, or winget ✓ WSL also supported if you prefer a Linux environment ✓ ARM64 build exists for the desktop app ✗ Shell differs — no Git for Windows means PowerShell, not bash Run on the machine this site is built on — Windows 11, no WSL layer.
This one we can answer from the desk rather than the documentation: aicost.tools is developed on native Windows 11 with Claude Code, so the test is the working environment. where claude resolves to C:\Users\…\.local\bin\claude.exe — a Windows executable, with no WSL in the path.
A one-word prompt round-tripped in 6.8 seconds on CLI 2.1.170, which is the same ballpark we measure elsewhere; nothing about Windows adds a penalty at the request level.
The detail that actually shapes your experience is the shell. Anthropic recommends installing Git for Windows so Claude Code can use bash for its shell commands; without it, it uses PowerShell instead. On this box Git 2.51.2.windows.1 supplies bash 5.2.37, so agent-run commands are POSIX. If yours doesn't, expect PowerShell syntax — different quoting, different pipes, and scripts written for one will not run on the other.
How to get it running.
The native installer is the recommended route and the only one that keeps itself current: in PowerShell, irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex. There is a CMD equivalent for people who aren't in PowerShell, and winget install Anthropic.ClaudeCode for people who manage everything through WinGet.
The trade-off is maintenance. Native installs update in the background; WinGet installs do not, so you run winget upgrade Anthropic.ClaudeCode yourself. If a command errors with The token '&&' is not a valid statement separator, you're in PowerShell running the CMD version — the prompt tells you which you're in.
Claude Code runs shell commands as part of its work, and on Windows there are two possible shells. With Git for Windows present it uses bash; without it, PowerShell. Anthropic recommends the former, and we agree for a practical reason: most instructions, hooks and scripts you'll copy from the internet assume POSIX syntax.
If you end up on PowerShell, the differences are not cosmetic — && chaining, redirection and quoting all differ, and a hook written for bash will fail. WSL sidesteps the question entirely by giving you a Linux environment, at the cost of a filesystem boundary between your tools and your files.
Beyond the CLI, the desktop app ships x64 and ARM64 builds, and the VS Code and JetBrains extensions are platform-agnostic. The browser version needs nothing installed at all. All of them are the same engine, so a project's CLAUDE.md and settings carry across — see what Claude Code is for how the surfaces relate.
Alternatives that also run on Windows.
Windows support is not a differentiator here — the mainstream coding agents all run on it. The choice comes down to where the agent lives and what it costs.
Frequently asked.
Quick follow-ups people search after this question.
Q · 01 Do I need WSL to run Claude Code on Windows? +
claude.exe and runs without WSL — that's what we tested. WSL remains supported if you prefer a Linux environment, but it is a choice, not a requirement.Q · 02 Why does Anthropic recommend installing Git for Windows? +
Q · 03 Does it work on Windows on ARM? +
Q · 04 Is it slower on Windows? +
6.8 s here, matching what we see elsewhere — the model call dominates, and it doesn't care which OS sent it.