Anthropic brings $1 Claude AI offer to all US government branches

Anthropic will make its Claude AI chatbot available to all three branches of the U.S. government — executive, legislative, and judicial — for just $1 per agency for one year. The move mirrors a similar deal announced by OpenAI last week but expands beyond OpenAI’s executive-branch-only offer.  CEO Dario Amodei said the initiative supports America’s AI leadership by giving federal institutions access to secure, advanced AI tools. The package includes enterprise-grade and “Claude for Government” versions, the latter FedRAMP High-certified to handle sensitive but unclassified federal workloads.  This certification ensures compliance with strict federal security standards for cloud services, making the tool suitable for high-risk scenarios. Anthropic’s enterprise version offers enhanced power, customization, and security compared to its consumer model. The deal comes amid intensifying competition among AI companies to secure public sector partnerships.  Google is reportedly negotiating a similar arrangement for its Gemini chatbot, while Elon Musk’s xAI recently secured a Department of Defense contract worth up to $200 million for its “Grok for Government” program. Anthropic itself has been tapped for the same $200 million Defense Department contract and already serves 10,000 scientists at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory and the District of Columbia Department of Health.  The push into government follows a broader trend of integrating AI into professional workflows with human oversight. OpenAI has also made inroads at the state level, reporting significant productivity gains in pilot programs with Pennsylvania and North Carolina workers. Anthropic’s low-cost federal offer not only strengthens its position against rivals but also underscores the growing demand for AI tools that can meet stringent security requirements while boosting efficiency across sensitive government operations.