What you'll accomplish
By the end of this guide, you'll know how to use Claude (free) to systematically extract compliance requirements, identify key evaluation themes, and structure your compliance matrix — cutting the initial RFP analysis from 4–8 hours to 60–90 minutes.
What you'll need
- A free Claude account at claude.ai (free plan works; Claude Pro is better for very long RFPs)
- The RFP documents: at minimum, Section L (Instructions to Offerors) and Section M (Evaluation Factors)
- Time needed: 10 minutes setup; 60–90 minutes for a full RFP analysis session
- Cost: Free
How-To Guide: Use Claude to Analyze RFPs and Build Compliance Matrices
Step 1: Create Your Claude Account and Prepare the RFP Text
Go to claude.ai and create a free account.
Prepare your RFP text: open the RFP PDF, select all text in Section L (Ctrl+A after clicking into the PDF), and copy it. If the PDF is scanned (not text-searchable), you'll need to use Adobe Acrobat's "Export to Word" feature first to get copyable text.
Note on document length: The free Claude plan handles 10,000–20,000 tokens per message — enough for most Section L documents (10–20 pages). For very long RFPs (300+ pages), use Claude Pro which handles much longer documents.