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Anthropic pauses free Claude Startups perks days after expanding the program
IA en un minuto newsroom · Editor: Jon Elgezabal
In 30 seconds
Anthropic has put the free Claude Startups offers on pause only three days after adding a year of Claude Team and $1,000 for the API. Sarah Wolf says 21 times more requests came in over 48 hours than across the prior five months, and the entry criteria were not set well. Anthropic will review again the applications of those who had not used the perks yet, while the Claude Startup Stack stays open to accepted members.
Anthropic has paused the free offers of Claude Startups, its program for startups, three days after expanding it. Sarah Wolf, head of startup marketing at Anthropic, explained it on X on Thursday 8 October at night, as reported by Forbes Centroamérica in an article by Fiona Riley.
On Tuesday 6 October, as part of its SF Tech Week, Anthropic expanded the program with a free year of Claude Team (its plan for teams) for up to five users and $1,000 in API credits. Companies founded in the last five years or that had received funding in the last two years were eligible. Claude Startups first launched in May.
According to Wolf, the program received 21 times more applications in the first 48 hours than in the previous five months, something the company had not expected, and they did not properly calibrate the acceptance criteria, which let in many people who are not startups.
Anthropic will email those who had not yet claimed the perks to verify their applications again, and those applications could be denied. In the meantime, those previously approved applicants cannot access them. The Claude Startup Stack (the program's package of discounts and credits), worth up to $45,000, remains available to accepted users.
The pause drew criticism on X and Reddit from users who accuse the company of not delivering what it promised. OpenAI and Google also run startup programs with credit offers.
Why it matters · analysis and opinion
The race to win over founders is being fought with credits and free plans, and this stumble shows the weak side of that race: opening the door without a serious filter fills the program with people it was not meant for and forces a U-turn on people who already thought they were in. For Anthropic the cost is not only financial, because those who expected the perks see it as a broken promise and say so in public. A startup counting on these offers for its first months would do well not to plan around them until they are active in its account, and to check whether it truly meets the age or funding conditions before applying.
Source: Forbes Centroamérica · Written with the help of AI: how we make the news
