Fifteen dollars a month for the premium seat. The standard one is free.
Anyone who writes research grants knows why that matters. Software subscriptions go through budget lines written years ago that have never heard the word model. A free seat simply does not need a line.
Fact
The facts: on 27 August 2026 Anthropic announced 10,000 seats for scientists around the world - free and discounted Claude subscriptions for one year through a new Claude team plan for scientists. Standard seats are free, and premium seats with 5x usage limits cost $15 per month. Principal investigators or equivalent at academic and nonprofit research institutions qualify, and then add the researchers in their lab. The company states an intention to extend the programme beyond the first 10,000 seats over the coming months. The AI for Science programme, which has largely supported biology so far, is looking to offer credits in other sciences as well, with up to $50,000 in credits per project; any researcher may apply. For biology and chemistry, Opus-class models remain the option for now, and Claude Fable continues to block professional biology and drug development queries because of dual-use risk. In parallel, Anthropic is building, together with the US government, an access programme for Mythos-class models in life sciences research; the first participants are already enrolled.
The catch is in the last paragraph
Biologists, exactly the people AI for Science has given the most to so far, stay on Opus, and so do chemists. Fable will keep refusing their professional questions. Anthropic says why: dual-use risk. I understand it; it is just that the headline of the announcement sounds broader than it is for them.
A free seat on a different model is still a seat. It is just not the same seat.
For a physicist, a mathematician or someone running climate models, the deal is clean. Registration goes through a verification form for the head of the group, who then adds their own people.
Ten thousand seats for the whole world is not many. Anthropic says it intends to add more, without saying how many or exactly when.
Official primary sources
Anthropic - Expanding our support for scientists, 27.08.2026The visual is generated code-art, no third-party images.