What Is Anthropic? How the Claude Maker Makes Money

Anthropic is the artificial intelligence company that develops Claude. It was founded in 2021, is based in San Francisco, and is incorporated in Delaware as a public benefit corporation. In the first half of 2026 it made $16.3 billion of revenue. About 80% came from usage-based fees for its models and about 20% from subscriptions. Anthropic sold close to half of that revenue through the cloud platforms of Amazon and Google.

What is Anthropic, and what does it do?

It builds frontier AI models and sells access to them. The S-1 says Claude reaches customers "through our models, platform, and applications." Businesses and developers use Claude through an API, which is a connection that lets software call the models directly. They also buy it through the big cloud platforms. Individuals and teams use it through apps and subscriptions. The filing singles out Claude Code, its coding agent, as the clearest example of what it calls Virtual Collaborators.

For the company's history, backers, and competitors, see our Anthropic IPO guide. For how it stacks up against its main rival, see our article on Anthropic versus OpenAI stock.

What is a public benefit corporation?

A for-profit company that also commits to a stated public purpose, which its directors have to weigh alongside shareholders' financial interests. Anthropic's filing says it chose the structure "consistent with our long-term commitment to AI safety and responsibility." Its stated purpose is the responsible development and maintenance of advanced AI for the long-term benefit of humanity. Control of the company also works differently from most listed tech firms. Our article on who controls Anthropic explains how.

How does Anthropic charge its customers?

In two ways. Usage fees. Customers pay for what they use, "metered in tokens and priced according to the model selected," as the filing puts it. A token is a small chunk of text the model reads or writes. These fees made up about 80% of first-half 2026 revenue, or $13.1 billion. Subscriptions. The Pro and Max plans for individuals and the enterprise app plans made up the other 20%, or $3.2 billion.

How much of Anthropic's revenue comes through cloud partners?

Close to half. The S-1 puts the share of revenue sold through cloud marketplaces at 48% in the first half of 2026. It was 11% in 2023, 32% in 2024, and 47% in 2025. Anthropic keeps the direct contract with the customer. In the filing's words, it pays "a fee to each CSP", or cloud service provider. Those fees aren't small. The filing says fees paid to channel partners rose by $2.7 billion in the first half. Those fees are most of its $3.2 billion sales, marketing, and partnerships bill.

So the same companies are distributors, investors, and suppliers of computing power. It's an unusual set-up, and the S-1 lists dependence on a few large partners among its risks.

Who are Anthropic's customers?

Mostly businesses, and increasingly large ones. As of September 30, 2026, the S-1 counts:

Net revenue retention was approximately 900%. The measure compares what qualified customers spent in the latest quarter with the same quarter a year earlier. It excludes Claude Pro and Max subscribers. So revenue from that group of existing customers was about nine times what it was a year before. Our article on Anthropic's revenue covers how reported revenue compares with the run-rate figures in the press.

Key takeaways

• Anthropic sells AI by the token to businesses and by the month to people and teams. Usage fees were 80% of first-half 2026 revenue.
• Close to half of revenue is sold through Amazon's and Google's clouds, and both are also investors and suppliers.
• Customer spending compounds fast: net revenue retention of about 900% means revenue from existing customers was about nine times its level a year earlier.

Sources

• Anthropic, PBC, Form S-1, SEC EDGAR, October 26, 2026