Claim $1200 Worth of Claude Max 20x: Application Guide for Open Source Maintainers for 6 Months of Free Use

Author's Note: Anthropic has launched the Claude for Open Source program, offering open source maintainers 6 months of free Claude Max 20x. There are 10,000 spots available, including all premium features like Claude Code and Cowork. This article details the eligibility criteria and application steps.

Anthropic has officially launched the Claude for Open Source program, providing 6 months of free Claude Max 20x subscription to open source project maintainers and core contributors. This program has a total value of up to $1,200 ($200/month × 6 months), with a limit of 10,000 spots, using a rolling review process.

Core Value: Get the full scoop on Claude for Open Source in 3 minutes—learn about eligibility, benefits, and the application steps. Eligible open source maintainers can apply immediately.

Claude for Open Source: Quick Facts

The Claude for Open Source Program Background

Anthropic launched the Claude for Open Source program to give back to the open source community. Open source maintainers are the backbone of the entire software ecosystem, but their work often lacks sufficient resource support. By providing Claude Max 20x—the highest-tier individual subscription plan—Anthropic aims to help open source maintainers leverage AI tools to boost their development efficiency, whether it's handling Pull Requests, refactoring code, writing documentation, or conducting security reviews.

This program complements the recently released Claude Code Security feature: Claude Code Security provides AI-powered security scanning for open source projects, while Claude for Open Source offers maintainers a comprehensive suite of AI-assisted development tools.

Maintainer Application Criteria

The application criteria for Claude for Open Source are clear and straightforward. You need to meet both identity conditions and activity conditions simultaneously:

Detailed Explanation of Claude for Open Source Application Criteria

Identity Conditions (meet one of the following):

• GitHub Stars Route: You are the primary maintainer or a core team member of a public repository with 5,000+ Stars. This means you're a key decision-maker for the project, not just a regular contributor.
• NPM Downloads Route: You maintain an NPM package with over 1 million monthly downloads. Even if your GitHub Stars are low, if your package is widely used, you still qualify.

Activity Condition:

• Within the last 3 months, you need to have verifiable active contribution records, including code commits, releases, or Pull Request reviews.

Exception Clause (Pay Special Attention):

Anthropic officially states:

"Don't quite fit the criteria? If you maintain something the ecosystem quietly depends on, apply anyway and tell us about it."

This means that even if your project doesn't have 5,000 Stars or 1 million NPM downloads, if it's an underlying dependency for many other projects (e.g., toolchains, compiler plugins, foundational libraries, etc.), you still have a chance of getting approved.

Claude Max 20x Free Benefit Value Analysis

Let's break down exactly what you get with Claude Max 20x. This is Anthropic's highest-tier subscription plan currently available to individual users:

Claude Max 20x Core Capabilities Overview

The Practical Value of Claude Max 20x for Open Source Maintainers

As an open source maintainer, the high usage limits of Claude Max 20x mean you can fully leverage AI assistance in the following scenarios:

• Pull Request Reviews: Use Claude to quickly review community PRs, analyzing code quality and potential issues
• Code Refactoring: Utilize Claude Code in the terminal for large-scale code refactoring
• Documentation Writing: Let Claude help write and update project documentation, API docs
• Issue Analysis: Quickly understand and pinpoint bugs reported by the community
• Security Reviews: Leverage Claude's reasoning capabilities to review potential security vulnerabilities in code
• Version Releases: Automatically generate Changelogs and Release Notes

🎯 Additional Note: Claude Max 20x is Anthropic's official subscription plan, which includes Claude's Web, Desktop, Mobile, and Claude Code terminal tools. If your development needs lean more toward API integration (like building AI-powered automation tools, AI reviews in CI/CD pipelines), you can access Claude series models' APIs through the APIYI apiyi.com platform. The two can complement each other.

Claude for Open Source Application Steps

4 Steps to Apply

Step 1: Check Your Eligibility

Before applying, verify that you meet at least one of the following criteria:

• Maintainer or core member of a GitHub public repository with 5,000+ Stars
• Maintainer of an NPM package with 1M+ monthly downloads
• Maintainer of a critical ecosystem dependency project (exception clause)

Also, confirm you have active contribution records within the last 3 months.

Step 2: Visit the Application Page

Go to the official Anthropic application portal: claude.com/contact-sales/claude-for-oss

Step 3: Fill Out the Application Form

In the application form, you'll need to provide:

• Your GitHub profile link
• Links and descriptions of the projects you maintain
• The project's Star count or NPM download numbers
• Your role in the project (Maintainer/Core Member)
• If using the exception clause, explain in detail your project's importance to the ecosystem

Step 4: Wait for Review

• Reviews are conducted on a rolling basis; applications are processed continuously after submission
• If approved, you'll receive an email containing an activation link
• Use the activation link to activate your 6-month Claude Max 20x subscription

Application Tips

The Difference Between Claude for Open Source and API Calling Services

It's important to clarify that Claude for Open Source provides a Claude subscription plan (Web/Desktop/Mobile/Claude Code), not API calling credits. These two usage methods are suited for different scenarios:

For open-source maintainers, the two methods can complement each other:

• Daily Development: Use Claude Max 20x in Claude Code for code review, refactoring, and documentation writing
• Automated Integration: Call the Claude API via APIYI apiyi.com to build automated CI/CD AI review pipelines

💡 Practical Tip: If you need to integrate AI code review into your project's CI/CD pipeline, you can call the Claude Opus 4.6 or Sonnet 4.6 API through the APIYI apiyi.com platform. The platform offers free testing credits and an OpenAI-compatible interface, making integration very straightforward.

Quick Verification with Claude for Open Source

If you want to experience Claude's code review capabilities before applying, you can quickly verify the results via the API:

import openai

client = openai.OpenAI(
    api_key="YOUR_API_KEY",
    base_url="https://vip.apiyi.com/v1"
)

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="claude-sonnet-4-6",
    messages=[
        {"role": "system", "content": "You are an AI assistant for open-source project maintainers, helping to review PRs and code quality."},
        {"role": "user", "content": "Please review this code and provide improvement suggestions:\n\n[Paste your code here]"}
    ]
)
print(response.choices[0].message.content)

import openai
import subprocess
from pathlib import Path

def review_pr_diff(diff_text: str, model: str = "claude-sonnet-4-6") -> str:
    """
    Use Claude model to review PR diff

    Args:
        diff_text: git diff output content
        model: model name to use

    Returns:
        PR review report
    """
    client = openai.OpenAI(
        api_key="YOUR_API_KEY",
        base_url="https://vip.apiyi.com/v1"
    )

    response = client.chat.completions.create(
        model=model,
        messages=[
            {
                "role": "system",
                "content": (
                    "You are a senior open-source project maintainer. Please review the following PR diff, "
                    "focusing on: code quality, potential bugs, performance issues, security risks, "
                    "and whether it complies with the project's coding standards. "
                    "Provide specific improvement suggestions and a score (1-10)."
                )
            },
            {"role": "user", "content": f"Please review the following PR diff:\n\n```diff\n{diff_text}\n```"}
        ],
        max_tokens=4000
    )
    return response.choices[0].message.content

# Get the latest PR diff and review it
diff = subprocess.run(
    ["git", "diff", "main...HEAD"],
    capture_output=True, text=True
).stdout

if diff:
    report = review_pr_diff(diff)
    print(report)
else:
    print("No differences found with the main branch")

Recommendation: Get free testing credits through APIYI apiyi.com to quickly experience Claude's capabilities in code review and development assistance. Once you're approved for Claude Max 20x, you can combine it with the Claude Code terminal tool for deeper development collaboration.

Frequently Asked Questions

Summary

Three key points about the Claude for Open Source program:

1. $1,200 Value in Free Benefits: 6 months of free Claude Max 20x, including all premium capabilities like Claude Code, Cowork, and early access to new features.
2. Clear Eligibility Criteria: Maintainers of projects with 5,000+ GitHub Stars or 1M+ monthly NPM downloads, with active contributions in the last 3 months; critical ecosystem dependencies can apply via exception clauses.
3. Limited Spots, First-Come-First-Served: A total of 10,000 spots available, with rolling reviews. Eligible open-source maintainers are advised to apply early via claude.com/contact-sales/claude-for-oss.

For open-source maintainers, this is a rare opportunity—leveraging AI tools to boost daily development efficiency, accelerating project maintenance from PR reviews and code refactoring to documentation writing. If you need to integrate Claude into automated workflows via API, you can get free testing credits through the APIYI platform at apiyi.com, complementing the Claude Max subscription.

📚 References

1. Claude for Open Source Official Application Page: Anthropic's official application portal for the open-source program.

   • Link: claude.com/contact-sales/claude-for-oss
   • Description: The official page to submit your application directly.

2. Claude Max Plan Explanation: Official help documentation.

   • Link: support.claude.com/en/articles/11049741-what-is-the-max-plan
   • Description: Detailed explanation of features and usage for Claude Max 5x and 20x.

3. Claude Pricing Page: Price comparison for all plans.

   • Link: claude.com/pricing
   • Description: Understand the pricing and feature differences between Free, Pro, Max 5x, and Max 20x plans.

4. Claude for Open Source Terms: Program terms of use.

   • Link: anthropic.com/claude-for-oss-terms
   • Description: Detailed program terms and usage rules.

5. Claude Code Usage Guide: Documentation for the Claude Code terminal tool.

   • Link: support.claude.com/en/articles/11145838-using-claude-code-with-your-pro-or-max-plan
   • Description: Learn how to use Claude Code and its usage under the Max plan.

Author: APIYI Technical Team
Technical Discussion: Feel free to share your Claude for Open Source application experience in the comments. For more AI development resources, visit the APIYI documentation center at docs.apiyi.com.