Anthropic announced an expansion of Claude for Startups on October 6, 2026, offering eligible companies $1,000 in Claude API credits and a free year of Claude Team for approved organizations that are new to the service. The Team offer covers up to five Premium seats, and both benefits depend on meeting the program’s conditions and receiving approval. Anthropic’s program page lists the current terms.
What the program offers
The benefits have separate eligibility rules and providers. The free-year Claude Team offer is for approved organizations new to Claude Team; companies already on a Teams plan do not qualify for that offer. It covers up to five Premium seats.
Approved companies can also receive $1,000 in credits for the Claude API. The credits expire six months after they are granted. They are separate from the Startup Stack, a collection of partner offers advertised at up to $45,000 in value. Independent third-party companies provide those offers, which have their own terms. Examples include $5,000 in ClickHouse Cloud credits, 12 months of ElevenLabs with 33 million characters, and six months of Hex Enterprise.
A separate opportunity may be available to startups backed by a venture capital firm in Anthropic’s partner network: up to $100,000 in additional API credits through that firm. It is not part of the standard $1,000 offer, and venture backing is not required to apply.
Who can apply
A company must meet at least one of two time-based criteria: it was founded within the past five years, or it received funding within the past two years. Bootstrapped, pre-seed and venture-backed startups can apply.
Applicants also need a Claude Console account, a company email address that matches the company website’s domain, and a short description of what they are building. Anthropic reviews every application, and applicants must comply with its supportability policies. Meeting the listed criteria does not guarantee approval.
Applying and getting support
Applicants sign in to Claude Console and complete the application there. Anthropic says most decisions arrive within minutes; applications that need manual review usually take two to three business days. After acceptance, companies can claim their API credits and Claude Team offer through the Claude Startups page in Claude Console.
Members can also book 45-minute live sessions with Anthropic’s Applied AI team. Those sessions are held every other week. The program also includes access to startup events, hackathons and community meetups.
Where the API credits work
The $1,000 credits apply to Anthropic’s first-party Claude API through Claude Console. They cannot be used through AWS Bedrock, Google Cloud Vertex AI or other third-party platforms. Companies that receive program credits automatically get higher API rate limits.
