Claude Partner Network: Tiers and How to Verify a Firm
Anthropic publishes each partner's tier in a public directory, so a buyer can check a firm's claim there.
Anthropic's Claude Partner Network provides technical support, training materials, and joint market development for organizations helping enterprises adopt Claude. Anthropic structures the Services Track to reflect what a firm has actually built and delivered with Claude.
Anthropic introduced the network in March 2026 with a $100 million investment commitment and added the Services Track in June 2026. This framework groups firms into tiers based on certified staff counts, production customer accounts, and published customer stories.
What the Claude Partner Network Is
The Claude Partner Network is Anthropic's free partner program for organizations that help enterprise clients adopt Claude. The program's Services Track classifies firms into tiers using certified staff counts, production deployments, and public case studies. Anthropic publishes every partner's standing in a public directory where prospective buyers can confirm partner claims.
Anthropic announced the initiative on March 12, 2026, allocating an initial $100 million to the program for 2026 and expanding its partner-facing team fivefold. Anthropic says a significant proportion goes directly to partners, though the launch page does not give the exact split. Any organization bringing Claude to market can apply through the join page.
Membership carries no enrollment fee on the Claude Partner Network launch page. New applicants enter the program at the Registered tier with a minimum commitment to 10 certified practitioners. Official partnership standing within the Services Track begins once a firm qualifies for the Select tier.
Services Track Tiers and Requirements
The Services Track evaluates firms across three measures: active certified staff, production customer deployments, and published customer stories. Anthropic notes that organizational size does not lower the bar or raise the tier standing for any applicant.
The first criterion counts practitioners who hold an active credential and have used Claude within the preceding 90 days. The second criterion counts customers running Claude in production (the Select tier counts joint customers deployed in the trailing 12 months). The third criterion requires published customer stories where clients publicly vouch for the firm's work.
To judge a firm beyond its tier, see how to hire an AI agency.
Role-Based Certifications for Practitioners
Claude certifications belong to individual professionals rather than consulting organizations. Practitioners earn these credentials through proctored examinations administered by Pearson Professional Assessments, receiving digital credentials issued through Credly by Pearson.
Anthropic published four role-based certifications on July 23, 2026. Each candidate begins at the foundational level before advancing to professional credentials.
Exams are open to members of the Claude Partner Network, with preparatory training hosted in the Anthropic Partner Academy. While Anthropic offers discounted exam rates on a first attempt for members of tiered partner firms, the pages reviewed do not publish exam fees or discount amounts. By July 23, 2026, more than 36,000 consultants across more than 1,300 organizations had received a certification. More than 400,000 people completed Claude training this year through the free Anthropic Partner Academy.
- Claude Certified Associate: Foundations covers everyday practical use of Claude for consultants, project leads, and business and technical roles
- Claude Certified Developer: Foundations is for engineers building applications with Claude, including the Claude API, tool use and agent development
- Claude Certified Architect: Foundations is for solution architects who design and build agent systems
- Claude Certified Architect: Professional is the advanced credential covering integration architecture, governance and evaluation at enterprise scale
Tier Review Schedule and Maintenance Rules
Standard partner promotions take place twice each year, on January 1 and July 1. During the program's first year, Anthropic scheduled an additional promotional review on October 1, 2026, though this page does not cover the outcome of the October 1, 2026 review.
Anthropic says it verifies each partner's standing every quarter. Partner organizations track their daily standing against certification and deployment benchmarks through the Claude Partner Hub.
A firm moves down only at the annual review on December 31, only if it no longer meets its tier's published requirements, and only after 90 days' notice and a chance to close the gap. Anthropic lists narrow exceptions in its Program Guide, which this page does not cover.
Checklist for Verifying a Partner Claim
Enterprise buyers can look a firm up in the Claude Partner Hub public directory. More than 40,000 firms applied to join the network by June 2026.
Run these four checks.
- Ask the firm for its exact Services Track tier, confirming whether it holds Select, Preferred, or Global Premier status rather than the Registered entry level
- Look the firm up in the public Claude Partner Hub directory, which shows each partner's tier, certified team, customer deployments and public references (standing is refreshed daily)
- Ask how many certified practitioners have used Claude within the preceding 90 days
- Request a link to a public customer story from the firm close to your use case
What a Tier Tells a Buyer
A partner tier indicates the volume of an organization's Claude practice rather than its technical alignment with a specific customer workload. Anthropic says size does not lower the bar or raise the tier, and none of the three pages says a tier predicts project results. In our reading of Anthropic's published requirements, we looked at what each threshold measures (people, production customers, public stories) and found it measures the practice and does not measure fit for a given project; readers can check this against the three Anthropic pages linked here.
Readers can examine the primary documentation directly via the Anthropic launch announcement, the Services Track overview, and the role-based certifications guide. For an overview of typical project deliverables, review our breakdown of Claude consulting services.
A Select partner with two deployments in your specific industry can offer better project alignment than a Global Premier firm whose deployments focus on unrelated business areas.
Frequently Asked Questions
- The Claude Partner Network is Anthropic's free partner program for organizations helping enterprises adopt Claude. The program provides training through the Anthropic Partner Academy, technical support, and joint market development resources. Its Services Track starts new applicants at an entry level called Registered and ranks partners in the Select, Preferred and Global Premier tiers based on certified staff, production deployments, and public customer stories.
- Yes. Anthropic states that membership is free of charge, and getting started with the Services Track is free. Exam prices are not published on the pages reviewed, and Anthropic says tiered partners receive discounted rates on a first attempt (amounts not published).
- The Services Track includes an entry level (Registered) and three partnership tiers. New applicants enter as Registered members with a minimum commitment to 10 certified practitioners. Partnership begins at the Select tier (at least 10 active certified individuals, at least 2 joint customers deployed in production in the trailing 12 months, at least 1 public customer story), advances to Preferred (at least 100 active certified individuals, at least 15 deployed joint customers, at least 3 public stories), and Global Premier requires (at least 1,000 active certified individuals, at least 100 joint customers deployed across three or more regions, at least 15 public customer stories, and a joint business plan with named executive sponsors).
- Claude certifications belong to individual people, not firms. Practitioners earn credentials by completing identity-verified examinations proctored through Pearson Professional Assessments, receiving digital badges via Credly. The Services Track counts how many of a firm's people hold a current certification and have used Claude in the past 90 days.
- You can check whether a firm is a member by looking the firm up in Anthropic's public directory on the Claude Partner Hub. The public directory displays each partner's current tier, certified team, customer deployments, and public references. You can also ask the firm for links to its public customer stories.