How to Use Claude Anonymously
Short answer: you can’t make claude.ai itself anonymous: signing up needs an email and a phone number that can receive texts, and chats are kept for at least 30 days. To use Claude models without giving your identity, use a service that offers them with no account or an anonymous one: Duck.ai and Brave Leo (free Claude Haiku, no account), or Obscurify.ai, NanoGPT and PPQ.ai (Claude Sonnet and Opus from a prepaid balance, payable in Monero). Anthropic still sees what you type, so leave out details that identify you.
Disclosure: written by Obscurify.ai, one of the services compared. Every claim about another service links to its own page, checked on 2026-11-06.
What does claude.ai require and keep?
From Anthropic’s own pages (checked 2026-11-06):
- A phone number. “When you first create a Claude account, you’ll be asked to enter your phone number” to receive a text code. VoIP numbers, Google Voice and app-made numbers aren’t accepted. (Anthropic)
- Chats are kept until you delete them, then removed from back-end storage within 30 days. (Anthropic)
- Up to 5 years if you allow training. If you let Anthropic use your chats to improve Claude, new chats may be kept in de-identified form for up to 5 years. (Anthropic)
- Incognito chats are still kept for 30 days, though they aren’t saved to your history or used for training. (Anthropic)
- Flagged chats are kept up to 2 years, and safety scores up to 7 years.
A phone number is one of the strongest identifiers there is. That’s what makes claude.ai hard to use anonymously, even with a throwaway email.
Where can you use Claude without an account or phone number?
| Service | Claude models (2026-11-06) | Account needed | Payment | What the service says about Anthropic keeping your prompts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Duck.ai | Haiku 5.5 free; Sonnet 5.5 on Plus; Opus 5.5 on Pro | None (subscriptions use a random ID) | Card or app store | Zero data retention under agreement; may cache up to 1 hour in memory; may keep chats where required by law or to fight abuse |
| Brave Leo | Haiku 4.5 free; Sonnet 5.5 and Opus 5.5 on Premium | None (Premium: email, unlinkable tokens) | Card | Brave says it hosts the models on its own infrastructure and stores no prompts |
| Obscurify.ai | Sonnet 5.5, Haiku 5.5, Opus 4.8 and others from a balance; Opus 5 and 5.5 on Casual or Pro | A random 16-digit number, nothing else | Monero, Bitcoin, Lightning or card, as blind vouchers | Zero-data-retention routes only, under providers’ published policies (no signed agreements) |
| NanoGPT | Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5.5 and more | None, prepaid | 29 cryptos incl. Monero, or card | Providers’ own policies; ZDR “best effort” |
| PPQ.ai | Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5.5 and more | None, prepaid | Bitcoin, Lightning, Monero or card | Depends on the model’s tier |
| Venice AI | Several, in “Anonymous” mode | Email, social login or crypto wallet for an account | USD, USDC; Bitcoin for yearly plans | “You should assume the provider is storing your content” |
All of these hide who you are from Anthropic: Anthropic sees a request from the service, not from you. None of them hides the text of your prompt from Anthropic. That’s how the model reads it.
How do you use Claude anonymously, step by step?
- Pick a service from the table that needs no account. Duck.ai and Brave Leo are free for a quick question with Claude Haiku. For Sonnet or Opus, use a prepaid balance on Obscurify.ai, NanoGPT or PPQ.ai, or a Duck.ai or Leo subscription.
- Hide your IP address if it matters. Use Tor or a VPN you trust. Obscurify.ai runs as an onion service and has a no-JavaScript page for Tor Browser’s safest setting (ChatGPT over Tor covers the same steps for Claude).
- Pay without your name. Monero leaves the least trail. On Obscurify.ai, every payment becomes blind-signed vouchers, so we can’t tell which payment funded which account (blind payments). Card payments are visible to the card processor.
- Remove identifying details from what you write. Names, employer, address, account numbers and rare events can identify you even through an anonymous service. See how to ask AI medical or legal questions privately for a checklist.
- Check files before uploading. Documents and photos carry metadata such as the author’s name or GPS location.
- Keep history local and clear it. These services keep history in your browser; clear it on shared devices.
Is it the same Claude?
It’s the same model, without the claude.ai app around it: no Projects, no memory across chats, and no claude.ai settings. Answers can differ slightly because each service sets its own system prompt and limits. For developers, Obscurify.ai offers the Claude models through an OpenAI-compatible API; setup for agent tools is on /agents.
Can you make claude.ai itself more private?
Somewhat, but not anonymous:
- Turn off model improvement in Claude’s privacy settings, so the 5-year training retention doesn’t apply.
- Use incognito chats for sensitive topics (still kept 30 days).
- Delete chats you don’t need; they’re removed from back-end storage within 30 days.
Your phone number and email stay attached to the account either way.
What are Obscurify.ai’s weak spots for this?
- Anthropic sees the prompt text, as with every option here. We scramble identities, and only use zero-data-retention routes, but those rest on published policies, not signed agreements. Duck.ai says it has agreements with its providers.
- No TEE or end-to-end encryption, and the server is closed source (the web client is GPL).
- No free Claude. Guest chat uses Llama 3.3 70B; Claude needs an account with a balance, and the newest Opus models need Casual ($20 a month) or Pro. See pricing.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use Claude without a phone number?
Not on claude.ai, which requires a texting-capable phone number and rejects VoIP numbers. You can use Claude models without one through Duck.ai, Brave Leo, Obscurify.ai, NanoGPT or PPQ.ai.
Does Anthropic know who I am if I use Claude through another service?
Not from the service: Duck.ai, for example, removes your IP address before the prompt reaches Anthropic, and Obscurify.ai scrambles identities before requests reach any model company. Anthropic still reads the prompt, so anything identifying in your text can reveal you.
Is Claude’s incognito mode anonymous?
No. Incognito chats aren’t saved to your history or used for training, but they’re tied to your account and kept for 30 days.
Can I pay for Claude with Monero?
Yes, through a service that sells Claude access: Obscurify.ai, NanoGPT and PPQ.ai accept Monero and offer Claude models. More in paying for AI with Monero or Bitcoin.
Can I use Claude over Tor?
Yes, through a service that works over Tor. Obscurify.ai runs a full onion site. Proton Lumo also works over Tor, but it doesn’t offer Claude.
Can I use Claude Code anonymously?
Claude Code normally runs on an Anthropic account or API key. Obscurify.ai can’t be its main model, but it can add its models to Claude Code as tools through an MCP server; setup is on /agents. Agent tools such as OpenClaw and Hermes Agent can run on Obscurify.ai’s Claude models directly.