Replit CEO says it no longer works with Anthropic; insiders disagree
Replit, the AI coding platform popular with startup founders and developers, is no longer working with Anthropic, according to its CEO and co-founder Amjad Masad. He said so onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt on Thursday.
Masad said the decision had several reasons, including cost. Replit announced a partnership with OpenAI in August, but TechCrunch notes there had never been any sign that it had left Anthropic. "I think ChatGPT is better now," Masad said, adding that Replit uses an internal benchmark to help assess metrics like performance. He also said: "We publish a public benchmark as well, and consistently, Sol and Astra perform better on building vibe-coded applications from scratch." He summed it up as "a decision based on both cost, partnership, and performance," saying Replit felt OpenAI was "a better partner for now."
The background: Replit sells a cloud-based software development platform where users build and deploy apps from inside their browser. Under the Anthropic partnership, Replit used Anthropic's Claude models to run the platform, and that partnership was said to have helped the company grow its revenue significantly.
The claim is contested. According to TechCrunch, insiders familiar with the Anthropic-Replit partnership rejected Masad's comments. One of them, who asked not to be named, said the partnership was still in place. TechCrunch also points to public evidence that Replit was using Anthropic products as recently as a few weeks ago. A Replit blog post from late September cites Claude Fable 5 and Claude Fable 5.1 as models running in Replit Agent's production environment. Around the same time, a Replit product employee posted on X about using Anthropic's flagship model Opus 5.5 and promoting its capabilities. TechCrunch asked Replit for clarification and said it would update the story if it heard back.
On the same stage, Masad gave a few figures on growth. Replit is not sharing ARR numbers yet, but he said enterprise was about 2% of revenue last year, and this year he put enterprise contracts at about 15% of revenue, with more than 50% of revenue coming from B2B. These are his own rough estimates ("I would say").
Masad also spoke about AI safety. Just as people need a good environment to work in, he said, "agents need a habitat for them to exist and do good work." That habitat, in his list, means good orchestration, error recovery, safety and security and sandboxing, networking, and identity and authorization. Once all of that is in place, he said, "then you can deploy AI safely."
Key facts
- Replit CEO and co-founder Amjad Masad said onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt on Thursday that Replit is no longer working with Anthropic.
- Masad cited cost, partnership and performance, said "I think ChatGPT is better now," and pointed to Replit's public benchmark, where he said Sol and Astra do better at building vibe-coded apps from scratch.
- Insiders dispute the claim; one anonymous person familiar with the partnership said it was still in place.
- A late-September Replit blog post cites Claude Fable 5 and Claude Fable 5.1 in Replit Agent's production environment, and a Replit product employee promoted Opus 5.5 on X around the same time.
- Masad estimated enterprise at about 2% of revenue last year and about 15% this year, with more than 50% of revenue from B2B; he declined to share ARR.
Why it matters
Replit is a well-known AI coding platform, and Anthropic's Claude models ran its platform under their partnership, which was said to have helped Replit grow its revenue significantly. A public break with one model supplier in favour of another, announced by the CEO himself, would be a notable shift in the AI coding market. Replit announced a partnership with OpenAI in August, yet nothing before this had suggested it had left Anthropic. Masad's stated reasons were cost, partnership and performance, with ChatGPT now judged better.
Who it affects
Replit users and the startup founders and developers who build apps on the platform are the most directly concerned, since the models behind Replit's agent shape what they get. Anthropic and OpenAI are the two labs in the story: one described as left behind, the other as the new preferred partner. Enterprise buyers are also part of the picture, as Masad said enterprise is a growing slice of Replit's revenue.
How to use it
There is no product to adopt here. A reader building on Replit or choosing a model provider can take two things from it: the claim that Replit's own public benchmark favours the models Masad named (Sol and Astra) for building vibe-coded applications from scratch, and Masad's list of what an agent environment needs, namely orchestration, error recovery, safety and security and sandboxing, networking, and identity and authorization. Neither comes with figures in the article, so treat them as a pointer to check, not as evidence.
How solid is it
The main claim rests on one source: Masad, speaking onstage. Against it, TechCrunch reports that insiders rejected his comments, and that Replit's website, blog and social posts show Anthropic products in use as recently as a few weeks ago, including a late-September blog post naming Claude Fable 5 and 5.1 in Replit Agent's production environment. The dissenting insider is anonymous. Replit had not responded to TechCrunch's request for clarification at the time of writing. The article gives no benchmark numbers and no cost figures. The revenue shares Masad gave are his own rough estimates.
Risks and caveats
The picture is unresolved: Masad says the relationship has ended, while others say it continues. The article gives no date for when Replit stopped working with Anthropic and does not say whether all workloads have moved to OpenAI models. It does not explain what Sol and Astra are, and it does not give the terms of the OpenAI partnership. Anthropic has not commented in the article. The benchmark claim comes from Replit's own testing as described by its CEO, and the revenue percentages are approximate.
“It was a decision based on both cost, partnership, and performance. And for all these reasons, we just felt like they were a better partner for now.”
— Amjad Masad, CEO and co-founder of Replit, at TechCrunch Disrupt