Anthropic Clarifies that the Supported Regions Policy Takes Effect on November 12
On October 8, 2026, Anthropic issued an announcement updating its 2026 Usage Policy, saying that the updated Usage Policy and Supported Regions Policy will take effect on November 12, 2026. The company said this update mainly clarifies existing rules and specifies how the Supported Regions Policy will be enforced.
The updated Supported Regions Policy states that Anthropic products and services are available only in the countries and regions listed. Any country or region not on the list is not supported, specifically including: use while physically present in an unsupported region (including users and personnel of entities based in supported regions); entities registered or headquartered in an unsupported region and their users or personnel (regardless of whether the individual is physically present in a supported region); and entities directly or indirectly majority-owned or controlled by persons or entities in an unsupported region and their users or personnel (regardless of whether the individual is physically present in a supported region). Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau are not on the supported list, while Taiwan is on the list.
The company had previously rolled out an identity verification mechanism for some users, carried out by third-party service provider Persona Identities, requiring users to submit a government-issued photo ID document (such as a passport, driver’s license, or national identity card) and possibly complete a live selfie, for the purposes of preventing abuse, enforcing usage policies, and fulfilling legal obligations. Verification failure or related risk signals may result in the account being suspended or terminated.
Original source:
Title: 2026 Usage Policy update
Publisher: Anthropic
Publication date: 2026-10-08
URL: anthropic.com/news/2026-usage-policy-update
Nature of source: official announcement
Verification status: this page was fully read for this release, verified on 2026-11-12, with no access restrictions
Supported content: announcement date of the policy update, effective date of 2026-11-12, clarification of the Supported Regions Policy (the three prohibited cases of physical location, entity registration/headquarters, and majority ownership or control), and the company’s explanation of the nature of the update. This does not prove any specific number of user bans or the scale of Chinese community feedback.
ABAB AI Insight
Anthropic had already updated its sales restrictions on September 4, 2025, targeting entities headquartered in unsupported regions, explicitly including China, when they access through subsidiaries in other countries. At the time, the company said that companies controlled by such jurisdictions may face legal requirements to share data and cooperate with intelligence services, and that there was also a risk of advancing their own AI development through distillation, so it wrote majority-ownership restrictions into the terms.
This clarification, which takes effect on November 12, 2026, lists physical location, entity registration location/headquarters, and direct or indirect control as three parallel circumstances, and also covers models provided through cloud platforms and authorized resellers. The identity verification mechanism operated by Persona had already been rolled out to some users around April 2026. A WIRED report once quoted an Anthropic spokesperson as saying that the company uses detection systems including identity verification to enforce policies against unauthorized access and has taken action against proxy networks used by Chinese users.
Compared with other major model providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic’s enforcement of regional restrictions and identity checks relies more on the dual standards of physical location and control relationships, rather than solely on IP or payment information. User reports show that some accounts were terminated after Persona verification was completed with Russian or Chinese passports, even when the individuals were physically in supported regions; the company’s help center lists creating an account from an unsupported region as one possible reason for a ban.
The combination of policy clarification and identity verification raises the barrier for users located in unsupported regions or associated with such entities to maintain long-term access. Demand for trading verified accounts in gray channels may rise accordingly, while the cost and compliance complexity of obtaining stable access directly through entities or individuals in supported regions also increases.
ABAB News · Cognition Law
The two-track system of regional lists and control rights makes both physical location and ownership attribution access boundaries at the same time.
Identity verification moves policy from IP detection to documents and facial recognition, shifting circumvention costs from the network to identity.
The majority-ownership clause brings subsidiary pathways under the restriction as well, so place of registration no longer alone determines availability.