Anthropic opens 10,000 free Claude seats to scientists
Anthropic is opening 10,000 subscription seats for academic and nonprofit researchers — free for one year, or $15 a month for higher limits — alongside expanded science credits of up to $50,000 per project.
Anthropic said Wednesday it is opening 10,000 seats for researchers worldwide under a new Claude team plan for scientists, with standard seats free for one year and premium seats carrying 5x usage limits priced at $15 per month. The company said it intends to extend the program "well beyond" the initial 10,000 seats over the coming months.
Eligibility is restricted: applicants must be a principal investigator or equivalent at an academic or nonprofit research institution, verified through a form, after which they can add lab members to the plan.
Anthropic is also broadening its AI for Science credits program, which to date has mostly supported biological sciences, to other fields — citing compute-heavy work such as progress on the Riemann zeta function and Claude's protein design work. Labs that exhaust subscription usage can apply for up to $50,000 in credits per project; the company said any researcher is eligible to apply.
Model access remains gated by dual-use policy. Researchers in biology and chemistry are still limited to Opus-class models, and Claude Fable models will continue to block professional biology and drug development queries. Anthropic said it is working with the US government on an access program letting life sciences professionals use its restricted models for R&D, and that it has enrolled its first participants.
The announcement follows Claude Science, a research-oriented product Anthropic launched in June. It did not disclose application deadlines or how seats will be allocated if demand exceeds supply.