Claude for Open Source program

Summarized from Anthropic's program page and terms and conditions, checked October 28, 2026. Anthropic can change or close the program at any time; the terms are authoritative.

Six months of Claude Max 20x, free, for open-source maintainers and contributors. You apply with your GitHub account, Anthropic reviews applications on a rolling basis, and the program is capped at 10,000 approved recipients unless Anthropic raises it.

What you get

  • A complimentary Claude Max 20x subscription for six consecutive months from the day you activate it.
  • No charge for the base subscription during that period. Overages can still be charged at Anthropic's standard overage pricing.
  • One active program subscription per person.

Eligibility: the Maintainer Track

Meet at least one of these when you apply:

  • Projects you maintain have 500+ dependent repositories or 100+ dependent packages in aggregate (GitHub dependency graph or a public registry such as npm, PyPI, crates.io, RubyGems, Packagist or Maven).
  • Packages you maintain have 200,000+ combined monthly downloads on public registries.
  • You are a listed committer or maintainer of a recognized foundation or language project. The program page names CPython, the Rust team, Node.js TSC, Apache PMC, CNCF, Kubernetes, the Linux kernel, Django and Rails as examples.
  • You authored 100+ pull requests merged into public repos you do not own in the last 12 months.
  • A repo you maintain had 20+ unique external contributors with merged pull requests in the last 12 months.
  • A repo you maintain has an OpenSSF criticality score of 0.4 or higher.

Anthropic judges the substance behind each number. Activity it considers trivial, duplicative or automated can be discounted even if a threshold is nominally met.

Eligibility: the Ecosystem Impact Track

If you miss every threshold but maintain or significantly contribute to something the ecosystem depends on (infrastructure libraries, developer tooling, foundational transitive dependencies), you can still apply with a short explanation of the project's significance. This track is discretionary.

General requirements (all applicants)

  • A natural person, at least 18 or the age of majority where you live, whichever is greater.
  • A legal resident of a country or region where Anthropic offers Claude.ai, and not subject to U.S. export-control or sanctions restrictions.
  • A GitHub account in good standing that is at least two years old.
  • Public open-source activity (commits, pull requests, reviews or releases) in the 90 days before you apply.
  • Maintain or contribute to at least one project under an OSI-approved license such as MIT, Apache 2.0, BSD or GPL.
  • Not an Anthropic employee, contractor or agent, or their immediate family or household member.

How to apply

  • Open the application page and sign in with GitHub.
  • Give your email address, a short description of how you will use the subscription, and up to 500 words on why you qualify.
  • Wait. Anthropic sets no review timeline and contacts you only if you are approved. Applying twice does not speed things up.
  • If approved, activate the link in your email within 90 days or the subscription is forfeited.

When the six months end

The subscription does not renew automatically. If you were on a paid plan, that billing is paused during the program and resumes at your plan and rate afterward unless you cancel. A free account goes back to the free plan. While the program is open, past recipients may re-apply under the then-current criteria.

Not the same as Claude Code being open source

The program supports open-source developers. Claude Code itself remains proprietary; see Is Claude Code open source? for the license details and what Anthropic has open-sourced.

FAQ

What is the Claude for Open Source program?

An Anthropic program that gives eligible open-source maintainers and contributors a complimentary Claude Max 20x subscription for six months.

Who is eligible for Claude for Open Source?

Applicants must meet at least one Maintainer Track threshold (for example 500+ dependent repositories, 200,000+ monthly package downloads, or 100+ merged pull requests to repos they do not own in the last 12 months) or apply under the discretionary Ecosystem Impact Track, and meet the general requirements, including a GitHub account at least two years old and public open-source activity in the last 90 days.

How many people can get Claude for Open Source?

Anthropic's terms cap the program at 10,000 approved recipients unless Anthropic raises the cap. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.

Will Anthropic tell me if my application is rejected?

No. The terms say Anthropic contacts applicants only if they are approved. Applying twice does not speed up review and may get the later application disregarded.

What happens after the six months?

The complimentary subscription does not renew automatically. If you had a paid plan, billing resumes at your plan and rate unless you cancel; a free account returns to the free plan.