Anthropic makes most of its money by charging for use of its Claude models: customers pay per token, priced by the model they choose, either directly or through cloud marketplaces, and a smaller share comes from subscriptions to Claude apps. Its S-1, filed on 26 October 2026, shows revenue of $41 million in 2023, $386 million in 2024, $4,585 million in 2025 and $16,286 million in the six months to 30 June 2026. Consumption-based revenue was 80% of the total in that half-year.
How it makes money
What the S-1 shows for 2025-26
As of 30 September 2026 Anthropic had more than 11,900 customers paying $100,000 or more on a trailing-twelve-month basis, up from more than 950 a year earlier, more than 1,900 paying $1 million or more and about 250 paying $10 million or more. Net revenue retention was about 900% as of 30 September 2026, a measure that excludes Claude Pro and Max subscribers.
In the six months to 30 June 2026, US revenue was $11,763 million and international revenue $4,523 million. Consumption revenue was $13,064 million and subscription revenue $3,222 million. No single customer accounted for more than 10% of revenue in the nine months to 30 September 2026.
Compute and infrastructure expense fell from 251% of revenue in the first quarter of 2025 to 48% in the second quarter of 2026, and Anthropic reported operating income of $1.0 billion for the three months to 30 June 2026. For the full half-year it still had an operating loss of $693 million.
Net loss for the six months to 30 June 2026 was $80,748 million, mostly from a $72,388 million change in the fair value of convertible notes and similar instruments. Anthropic’s company-defined non-GAAP Adjusted Net Income for the same period was $2,671 million.
Anthropic revenue by period, as filed
What it means for you
- Investors: read revenue next to compute. The S-1 warns that revenue is mainly consumption-based and much of it is not under long-term contracts, while compute commitments generally run for years.
- Builders on Claude: route each task to the cheapest model that does it well; the S-1 says model choice and usage volume are the main drivers of customer spend.
- Enterprise buyers: a committed-spend contract buys a fixed price list, so size the minimum against real usage, not a forecast.
- Cloud and channel partners: nearly half of revenue went through CSP marketplaces in the first half of 2026, so distribution through the clouds matters as much as model quality.
- Analysts: treat Adjusted Net Income as a company-defined figure and reconcile it to the GAAP net loss before comparing it with peers.
Anthropic runs a token business: revenue scales with usage, and the cost that decides margins is compute bought years in advance. The Business Engineer’s view is that the most telling number in the S-1 is the ratio between the two, which fell from 251% to 48% of revenue in six quarters.
Read: Anthropic at The Enterprise AI Chasm →Explore the platform →Related: Anthropic's S-1: $16.3B half-year revenue · Anthropic's net revenue retention of about 900% · Anthropic AI business model: compute and margins · Anthropic's value map · Anthropic · OpenAI business model
Frequently asked questions
How does Anthropic make money?
Mainly by charging for use of its Claude models, metered in tokens; consumption-based revenue was 80% of the $16,286 million it earned in the six months to 30 June 2026, and subscriptions made up the rest.
What was Anthropic's revenue in 2025?
Revenue was $4,585 million for the year ended 31 December 2025, up from $386 million in 2024 and $41 million in 2023, according to its S-1.
Is Anthropic profitable?
Not on a GAAP basis: the net loss was $80,748 million in the six months to 30 June 2026, mostly from fair-value changes on convertible notes. It did report operating income of $1.0 billion for the second quarter of 2026.
What is Anthropic's valuation in the S-1?
The S-1 does not state a valuation or an IPO price range. It gives round prices instead: Series H-1 shares were sold at $589.0095 each in May and June 2026.
Sources
- Anthropic, PBC (2026), Form S-1 Registration Statement, SEC
- SEC EDGAR (2026), Anthropic, PBC Form S-1 filing index
The full guide
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