Anthropic Claude for Government goes GA: federal and state agencies, billed by usage not seats
Anthropic moved Claude for Government to general availability on September 30, ending the public beta that began in July; the platform runs on a FedRAMP High authorized environment with usage-based billing and no seat fees. Claude Code CLI and Claude for Microsoft 365 entered early access.
Anthropic made Claude for Government generally available on September 30, ending the public beta that began on July 7, 2026. The platform runs in a FedRAMP High authorized environment, delivering capabilities comparable to Anthropic's commercial customers while meeting compliance requirements; new capabilities typically arrive on the commercial release cadence. Claude works directly with files on the desktop, and agency staff can use Skills, plugins and Projects for memo creation, RFP reviews and casework. Through Claude Code, public sector teams can build or modernize the software systems underpinning public services.
Billing is by usage rather than seats: agencies purchase usage in fixed increments under a hard not-to-exceed cap with no seat fees. Administrators define user tiers with spend and model limits, track usage by user and model, and receive burndown alerts. Department-level administrators distribute prepaid usage to sub-agencies, which manage their own users. Single sign-on runs through the agency's own identity provider, with SCIM group mappings determining rate limits, dollar caps and allowed models per tier. A layered configuration model sets defaults for sub-agencies covering what Claude can connect to and which features are available.
On oversight and audit, organization administrators can review audit logs of administrative actions, and two-person approval is required for sensitive operations on Anthropic's side. Usage exports include metering data only, so agencies can respond to ATO and inspector general requests without moving sensitive material, and conversation history remains stored locally on the agency-managed device. Claude Code CLI and Claude for Microsoft 365 entered early access through the same environment and under the same administrative controls. No separate cloud-provider relationship is required; new agencies can request access at claude.com/solutions/government.