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# Anthropic Launches Claude for Open Source Programme With Free Max Access
- URL: https://www.theleftshift.com/anthropic-launches-claude-for-open-source-programme-with-free-max-access/
- Published: 2026-02-27T07:35:47.000Z
- Updated: 2026-02-27T07:35:47.000Z
- Description: The initiative is aimed at supporting developers who maintain widely used public repositories.
- Author: The Left Shift Bureau
- Tags: Open Source, AI Startups

[Anthropic](https://www.theleftshift.com/anthropic-exposes-industrial-scale-distillation-attacks-on-claude-from-china/) has announced the [Claude for Open Source Programme](https://claude.com/contact-sales/claude-for-oss?ref=theleftshift.com), offering six months of free Claude Max 20x access to eligible open-source maintainers. The initiative is aimed at supporting developers who maintain widely used public repositories.

*“Open-source maintainers and contributors keep the ecosystem running,”* Anthropic stated, describing the programme as a way to thank contributors for their work.

Claude Max 20x, which typically costs $200 per month, provides higher usage limits than the $20-per-month Claude Pro plan and includes access to Claude Code, the company’s AI-powered CLI coding tool. The six-month offer represents a value of $1,200 per approved maintainer.

To qualify, applicants must be a primary maintainer or core team member of a public repository with more than 5,000 GitHub stars or over 1,000,000 monthly NPM downloads. 

*"You’re a primary maintainer or core team member of a public repo with 5,000+ GitHub stars or 1M+ monthly NPM downloads. You've made commits, releases, or PR reviews within the last 3 months," the startup said.*

Maintainers must also have made commits, released updates, or reviewed pull requests within the past three months. If a repository has multiple maintainers, each must apply individually.

*“If you maintain something the ecosystem quietly depends on, apply anyway and tell us about it,”* Anthropic said on its application page.

Recently, [Anthropic acquired Seattle-based AI startup Vercept](https://www.theleftshift.com/anthropic-acquires-vercept-to-boost-claudes-computer-interaction-skills/), marking a strategic move to advance its [Claude](https://www.theleftshift.com/anthropic-unveils-claude-sonnet-4-6-with-1-mn-token-context-and-stronger-coding-agent-skills/) artificial intelligence models’ ability to operate within live software environments and complete complex, multi-step tasks.