Anthropic offers startups free year of Claude Team, $1,000 in credits

Anthropic has expanded its Claude for Startups program, offering qualifying companies a free year of its Claude Team plan, which includes up to five premium seats. The initiative, announced during Anthropic's SF Tech Week event, also provides $1,000 in API credits for building with Claude. Additionally, participating startups gain access to Claude Marketplace, enabling them to build plugins for the service, and can book virtual office hours with Anthropic's Applied AI team.

To be eligible for the program, companies must have been founded within the last five years or have received funding within the last two years. Interested companies can apply through the Claude for Startups program page. Anthropic stated that the program was created because they believe the benefits of AI will largely reach people through companies building on top of models, making close partnerships with founders and developers central to their mission.

According to one source, the offer includes access to the Claude API, Claude Code, Claude Managed Agents, and Claude Cowork, with higher API rate limits while on credits. Credits apply only to the first-party Claude API via the Claude Console and not to AWS Bedrock or Google Vertex AI. Another source notes that for credits and extras, companies must have received equity funding from an institutional investor, be founded within the last four years, and not have received prior Anthropic startup credits. This source also mentions that the program was previously invite-only, requiring a link from Anthropic's partner VCs, but has since transitioned to a self-serve application form.