Replit CEO says OpenAI is now its default over Anthropic

Replit, the AI coding platform popular with startup founders and developers, is no longer working with Anthropic, CEO and co-founder Amjad Masad said on Thursday onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt. He said the decision had several reasons, including cost. Replit announced a partnership with OpenAI in August, but until now there had been no sign that it had stopped partnering with Anthropic.

Masad said "I think ChatGPT is better now". He added that Replit uses an internal benchmark to assess metrics like performance and also publishes a public one: "consistently, Sol and Astra perform better on building vibe-coded applications from scratch." He summed it up as a decision based on cost, partnership and performance, and said Replit felt OpenAI was a better partner "for now". He also said Replit had been, until recently, a top-five customer of Anthropic. Before the OpenAI deal, Replit relied on Anthropic's Claude models to run its platform, and that partnership was said to have helped the company grow its revenue significantly.

The picture is less clear-cut than the headline remark. After Disrupt, Masad clarified that customers can still access Anthropic models on the platform, but that OpenAI's ChatGPT is now the default. TechCrunch notes this could significantly reduce Replit's spend with Anthropic, since most customers stick with the default rather than choosing a model themselves. Over the weekend Masad told TechCrunch that Replit remains model agnostic, that users can choose Anthropic's Claude or other supported models, and that OpenAI is now its preferred partner for powering Replit Agent, based on performance, economics and the strength of the partnership.

Insiders familiar with the Anthropic and Replit partnership rejected Masad's onstage comments. One person, who asked not to be named, said the partnership was still in place. TechCrunch also found evidence that Replit promoted Anthropic products as recently as a few weeks ago. A late-September blog post cites Claude Fable 5 and Claude Fable 5.1 as models running in Replit Agent's production environment, and around the same time a Replit product employee posted on X about using Anthropic's flagship model Opus 5.5 and promoting its capabilities.

Masad also discussed growth. Replit is not sharing ARR numbers yet, but he said enterprise was about 2% of revenue last year, about 15% of revenue this year comes from enterprise contracts, and more than 50% of revenue is B2B. Backstage he told TechCrunch he expects more than half of Replit's revenue to come from enterprise and government customers in 2027.

On AI safety, Masad said that just as people need an office, food, air-conditioning and a computer to work, "agents need a habitat for them to exist and do good work." He listed good orchestration, error recovery, safety and security, sandboxing, networking, and identity and authorization. "Once you figure all of that out, then you can deploy AI safely," he said.

The article was first published on October 16 and later updated with more context on Replit's partnerships with Anthropic and OpenAI, and its title was changed.

Key facts

Replit CEO Amjad Masad said onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt that Replit is no longer working with Anthropic, citing cost, partnership and performance.
He later clarified that customers can still use Anthropic models on Replit, but OpenAI's ChatGPT is now the default and the preferred partner for powering Replit Agent.
Insiders familiar with the partnership rejected his account, and one unnamed person 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.
Masad said Replit had been a top-five Anthropic customer until recently, and that the shift could cut Replit's Anthropic spend because most users keep the default model.
On revenue, Masad said enterprise was about 2% last year and about 15% this year, with more than 50% of revenue B2B; he expects more than half from enterprise and government in 2027.

Why it matters

Replit was a large Anthropic customer, a top-five one until recently by Masad's account, and the Claude models were said to have helped it grow revenue significantly. A switch of the default model to OpenAI's ChatGPT, if it holds, moves a lot of usage between two major model vendors. TechCrunch notes that most customers stick with the default, so the change could significantly reduce Replit's spend with Anthropic.

Who it affects

Replit users, who can still pick Anthropic's Claude or other supported models but will now start on ChatGPT by default. Anthropic and OpenAI are the two vendors directly involved. The enterprise-focused part of Replit's business is also in the frame: Masad said B2B is now more than half of revenue.

How to use it

For people building on Replit, the practical point from Masad is that model choice remains open: users can select Anthropic's Claude or other supported models, while ChatGPT is the default and OpenAI is the preferred partner for powering Replit Agent. The article gives no pricing or contract terms.

How solid is it

Mixed. The central claim comes from Masad himself, on the record, and he later softened it: Anthropic models remain available. Insiders familiar with the Anthropic and Replit partnership dispute his onstage comments, though only one unnamed person is cited, who said the partnership was still in place. Replit's own late-September blog post and an employee's post on X show Anthropic models being promoted weeks ago. Masad's benchmark claims come with no numbers, and neither Anthropic nor OpenAI is quoted in the article.

Risks and caveats

The article gives no dollar figures for Replit's spend with either vendor, no contract terms, and no date for when anything changed. Replit's ARR is undisclosed. The 2%, 15% and 50% revenue shares are Masad's approximate figures, and the 2027 outlook is a forecast. The anonymous insider does not say whether Anthropic is still the default or how usage is split. The line that Replit is 'no longer working with Anthropic' should be read alongside Masad's own clarification that Anthropic models remain selectable.

“Replit remains model agnostic”

— Amjad Masad, Replit CEO and co-founder, to TechCrunch