Anthropic has struck a deal with the United States (U.S.) General Services Administration (GSA) to make its Claude AI tools available to all three branches of the federal government for just $1 per agency over the next year.
The agreement is similar to OpenAI’s move, which recently made its ChatGPT Enterprise product available to participating agencies under the same pricing model.
The offer extends to the executive, legislative and judicial arms of government. While there is no requirement for agencies to adopt Claude, the deal opens the door for lawmakers, judges and federal workers to integrate the chatbot into day-to-day operations for sensitive but unclassified tasks.
“America’s AI leadership requires that our government institutions have access to the most capable, secure AI tools available,” said Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei. “By offering expanded Claude access across all three branches of government, we’re helping the federal workforce leverage frontier AI capabilities.”
The GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service commissioner, Josh Gruenbaum, said affordability would speed adoption. “The price is going to help uptake from agencies happen that much quicker,” he noted.
Claude has already been deployed in select agencies, including the Department of Defense, and is approved under the FedRAMP High security standard. The government recently added Anthropic’s Claude, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and Google’s Gemini to its Multiple Award Schedule, making them official suppliers for AI procurement.
Tech giants see little direct profit from such low-cost agreements. However, they gain valuable insight into how AI is applied in high-value government use cases, intelligence that could change future enterprise products or renewals once the current deals expire.
Discussions are ongoing with other providers, including Meta’s Llama, Elon Musk’s xAI’s Grok, and smaller niche AI platforms. Google is also reportedly negotiating a similar offer for its Gemini chatbot.
The approval process comes against a political backdrop. The White House has pledged to block AI systems found to have “partisan bias or ideological agendas” from doing business with the federal government.
Critics of existing models, including some of former President Donald Trump’s allies, have claimed that tools such as ChatGPT and Gemini lean towards liberal viewpoints.
Government officials have stressed that approval for procurement does not indicate preference for any particular platform and that all approved models remain subject to ongoing bias reviews.
