On 27 August Anthropic announced a dedicated plan for scientists: the standard seat is free for a year, and the premium seat with five times the usage limit costs $15 a month. Principal investigators at academic and nonprofit institutions qualify. For biology and chemistry the rules do not change.
- 10,000 seats, each for one year, with the stated intention of growing beyond them.
- Anthropic wants to offer AI for Science credits beyond biology as well: up to $50,000 per project, and any researcher can apply.
- Fable keeps refusing professional biology and drug development queries; that work runs on Opus models.
Fifteen dollars a month for the premium seat. The standard one is free.
Anyone who writes research grants knows why that matters. Software subscriptions go through budget lines written years ago that have never heard the word model. A free seat simply does not need a line.
The catch is in the last paragraph
Biologists, exactly the people AI for Science has given the most to so far, stay on Opus, and so do chemists. Fable will keep refusing their professional questions. Anthropic says why: dual-use risk. I understand it; it is just that the headline of the announcement sounds broader than it is for them.
For a physicist, a mathematician or someone running climate models, the deal is clean. Registration goes through a verification form for the head of the group, who then adds their own people.
Ten thousand seats for the whole world is not many. Anthropic says it intends to add more, without saying how many or exactly when.