Anthropic announced on Wednesday that it’s launching a new Claude for Education tier, an answer to OpenAI’s ChatGPT Edu plan. The new tier is aimed at higher education, and gives students, faculty, and other staff access to Anthropic’s AI chatbot, Claude, with a few additional capabilities.
One piece of Claude for Education is “Learning Mode,” a new feature within Claude Projects to help students develop their own critical thinking skills, rather than simply obtain answers to questions. With Learning Mode enabled, Claude will ask questions to test understanding, highlight fundamental principles behind specific problems, and provide potentially useful templates for research papers, outlines, and study guides.
Claude for Education may help Anthropic boost its revenue. The company already reportedly brings in $115 million a month, but it’s looking to double that in 2025 while directly competing with OpenAI in the education space. Anthropic has historically tended to match OpenAI’s offerings, and this launch is no exception.
Anthropic says Claude for Education comes with its standard chat interface, as well as “enterprise-grade” security and privacy controls. In a press release shared with TechCrunch ahead of launch, Anthropic said university administrators can use Claude to analyze enrollment trends and automate repetitive email responses to common inquiries. Meanwhile, students can use Claude for Education in their studies, the company suggested, such as working through calculus problems with step-by-step guidance from the AI chatbot.
To help universities integrate Claude into their systems, Anthropic says it’s partnering with the company Instructure, which offers the popular education software platform Canvas. The AI startup is also teaming up with Internet2, a nonprofit organization that delivers cloud solutions for colleges.
Anthropic says that it has already struck “full campus agreements” with Northeastern University, the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Champlain College to make Claude for Education available to all students. Northeastern is a design partner — Anthropic says it’s working with the institution’s students, faculty, and staff to build best practices for AI integration, AI-powered education tools, and frameworks.
Anthropic hopes to strike more of these contracts, in part through new student ambassador and AI “builder” programs, to capitalize on the growing number of students using AI in their studies. A 2024 survey from the Digital Education Council found that 54% of university students use generative AI every week. Claude for Education deals could help Anthropic get more young people familiar with its tools, while well-funded universities pay for it.
It’s not yet clear what sort of impact AI might have on education — or whether it’s a desirable addition to the classroom. Research is mixed, with some studies finding that AI can be a helpful tutor and others suggesting it might harm critical thinking skills.
