Software companies occasionally have to put the obvious in writing. Anthropic just updated its Usage Policy with two new restrictions aimed at abuses in selling access to Claude, banning unauthorized reselling, proxying, and payment bypasses before the rules take effect on November 12. It is the second rule tightening since September 2025.
Why the Obvious Needs a Clause
Contracts are supposed to clarify subtle legal questions for honest customers. In practice, they often read like a ledger of every scheme people have already tried to pull on the billing department.
Anthropic added two specific bans to stop abuses around selling access to Claude. The first targets reselling and proxying access to the assistant, while the second forbids unauthorized access to paid features through stolen data, fake payment details, or any other trick designed to dodge paying.
Software Middlemen Take Note
Developers and companies that offer access to Anthropic models inside their own products sit right in the path of these changes. A third-party tool cannot quietly act as an unapproved proxy.
The Usage Policy covers every group touching the software:
- Direct product users working inside Claude.ai and Claude Code.
- Commercial and infrastructure accounts including API customers, cloud platforms, and authorized resellers.
- Downstream customers who are the end users of integrated services.
Throttles and Shutoffs
Most builders running legitimate integrations only need to make sure their billing and access flows stay within authorized channels once November 12 arrives. Anyone caught testing the fences faces four possible responses that Anthropic reserves the right to use:
- Formal warnings sent to violators.
- Access limits that cap both speed and volume.
- Service suspensions that pause an account.
- Complete termination of service.
Corporate policy updates usually dress themselves up in grand language. This one simply reminds the internet that if you want to sell the product, you need permission, and if you want the paid features, your payment details need to be real.