On August 27, 2026, Anthropic announced a substantial expansion of its support for the research community: it will open 10,000 seats that give scientists free or discounted Claude subscriptions for one year. The company said the move is part of a broader effort to accelerate scientific discovery via subscriptions, credits, and tools such as Claude Science.
What the program includes
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10,000 scientific seats: standard seats will be offered for free, while premium seats — which come with 5x usage limits — will be available for $15 per month. Anthropic indicated it plans to expand well beyond the initial 10,000 seats in the coming months.
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Claude Science: launched in June, Claude Science integrates tools commonly used by researchers, produces auditable artifacts, and provides flexible access to computing resources.
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Expanded AI for Science credits: until now the program has largely supported researchers working in biological sciences. Anthropic said it intends to offer credits to researchers in other scientific fields as well, including teams conducting ambitious, compute‑heavy research — citing as examples prior work that advanced study of the Riemann zeta function and Claude’s work on protein design.
Eligibility and how to apply
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To register for the Claude team plan for scientists, applicants must complete a verification form. Only principal investigators or equivalent positions at academic or nonprofit research institutions are eligible to qualify; once verified, PIs can add researchers in their labs to the plan.
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If a lab exhausts its allotted credits and needs more usage than the standard or premium plans provide, any researcher can apply to the AI for Science program for up to $50,000 in credits per project.
Model restrictions and life‑sciences access
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For the moment, researchers in biology and chemistry remain limited to Opus‑class models. Claude Fable models will continue to block professional biology and drug development queries because of their potential dual‑use risks.
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Anthropic is working with the U.S. government to build an access program that would allow life‑sciences professionals to use Mythos‑class models for life‑sciences research and development. The company has enrolled its first participants in that pilot and expects to share more details and increase access soon.
Why this matters
Anthropic says that by easing researchers' access to Claude through subscriptions, credits, and dedicated products like Claude Science, it aims to materially speed up scientific progress by reducing access barriers and providing more computational resources for demanding research projects.
