11th Nov 2026: Anthropic, the company behind the Claude chatbot, earned $41 million in all of 2023. Between July and September this year 2026, it earned nearly $17 billion. Its IPO filing, made public on 26 October, shows for the first time where that money comes from and where it goes.
Anthropic revenue: S-1 filing: “How much money does Anthropic make”
Revenue: 800 times bigger in under three years
Sales went from $386 million in 2024 to $4.6 billion in 2025, then $33.2 billion in just the first nine months of 2026. That is about 800 times all of 2023. If October’s reported pace holds, the final quarter alone should bring in about $20 billion, taking 2026 past $50 billion.
Anthropic business model: How does Claude make money:
Who pays
Four in five dollars ($26.3 billion) are pay-per-use fees, mostly from companies and developers building Claude into their own apps and coding tools. The other one in five ($6.9 billion) comes from monthly plans, both personal (Pro, Max, Ultra) and business (Team, Enterprise).
The biggest payers matter most. More than 11,900 customers spending over $100,000 a year brought in $24.5 billion, or 74% of all revenue. More than 1,900 pay over $1 million. Anthropic does not say how many people pay for subscriptions.
Where the money goes
From January to September, Anthropic spent $34.5 billion running the business, slightly more than it earned. Chips and data centres took $18.8 billion, more than half.
Sales, marketing and partnerships cost $5.5 billion, staff $4.9 billion and other running costs $3.3 billion. A further $2 billion was a non-cash charge for matching employee donations. The filing does not split staff costs into salary, bonus, benefits and stock.
You may have seen headlines about a $104 billion loss this year. Most of it is an accounting entry: as Anthropic’s value rose, so did the value of shares it owes some early lenders. No cash was spent. On its own adjusted measure, the company has made an operating profit two quarters running.
Who paid for it
Investors have put in about $121 billion since 2021, from a $124 million first round to $95 billion this year alone.
Amazon invested $8 billion between 2023 and 2024, and Google has invested several billion more. At the end of September, Anthropic held $132 billion in cash and short-term investments.
What comes next
Anthropic has told investors it expects $190 to $200 billion in revenue in 2028. It has not shared a current figure for 2027. Its older 2027 forecasts, up to $34.5 billion and later about $55 billion, have already been overtaken.
If sales grow at an even pace from about $53 billion in 2026 to $195 billion in 2028, 2027 would land near $100 billion. That is our arithmetic, not a company forecast.
Sources
• Anthropic S-1/A quarterly figures and commitments (BrainDetox)
• Anthropic revenue history from the S-1 (FourWeekMBA)
• Subscription and pay-per-use revenue (FourWeekMBA)
• Customer counts and retention (FourWeekMBA)
• Anthropic lost $42bn in 2025, Reuters reports (TNW)
• 2028 revenue forecast (Reuters via NST)
• IPO valuation talk falls to $1.2tn (Tech Insider)
• Series H at $965bn (TYN Magazine / FT)
• Amazon and early funding rounds (36Kr)
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