Question 1

Where is Claude available? Where is it blocked?

Accepted Answer

Claude is available in ~172 countries and fully blocked in ~25. ❌ Fully blocked (GFW + Anthropic double-block): 🇨🇳 Mainland China, 🇭🇰 Hong Kong, 🇲🇴 Macao, 🇷🇺 Russia, 🇮🇷 Iran, 🇰🇵 North Korea, 🇨🇺 Cuba, 🇸🇾 Syria, 🇧🇾 Belarus. Partially restricted: 🇦🇫 Afghanistan, 🇱🇾 Libya, 🇸🇩 Sudan, 🇸🇴 Somalia, 🇻🇪 Venezuela. ⚠️ Since July 2024, Anthropic actively blocks HK/Macao. Major supported regions (172 total, partial list):

Question 2

Why is Claude a 'double blockade' for China users?

Accepted Answer

China users face two layers of blocking that must both be bypassed: ① Layer 1 — GFW National Firewall: claude.ai / api.anthropic.com are DNS-poisoned and IP-blocked. Direct access fails 100%. Bypassed via VPN. ② Layer 2 — Anthropic's own geo-block (company level): Since July 2024, Anthropic actively rejects all requests from mainland China/HK/Macao IPs. Even after bypassing GFW, if IP is classified as CN/HK/MO, Anthropic rejects it.

Question 3

Are Hong Kong and Macao also blocked?

Accepted Answer

❌ Yes. Since July 2024, Anthropic actively blocks Hong Kong and Macao. This is often overlooked — many users assume leaving mainland China means they can use Claude, but Hong Kong and Macao are equally blocked. Even though GFW doesn't apply in HK/Macao, Anthropic's own policy rejects HK/Macao IPs. Users in HK/Macao need to: VPN to other countries (US, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan etc.) to use Claude.

Question 4

How much is Claude? Is the Free tier enough?

Accepted Answer

The Free tier (Claude Sonnet 4.6) is sufficient for most users. ① Claude Free — $0, limited Sonnet 4.6 + basic features ② Claude Pro — $20/mo, Opus 4.6 + Sonnet 4.6 + Haiku 4.5, higher limits, projects

Question 5

Why is Claude stricter than ChatGPT?

Accepted Answer

Claude is one tier stricter than ChatGPT (4-star vs 3-star), differing in 5 dimensions: Result: ChatGPT premium VPN success rate is 80-90%, Claude only 60-75%. Claude users must be more cautious — use Dedicated IP, stick to one node, match browser fingerprint, disable WebRTC. AF3 checks the network layer only (IP/DNS/WebRTC/IPv6), cannot check browser fingerprint (system language, timezone). Ensure your system settings match the VPN country yourself.

Question 6

What do I need to register a Claude account?

Accepted Answer

① Non-China phone number — Anthropic does not accept +86 China numbers. Options: • Google Voice (free, requires US IP to register) • Third-party SMS services (SMS-Activate / sms-man, ~$0.5-1.5 per code)

Question 7

What are China's alternatives to Claude?

Accepted Answer

If you don't want to deal with VPN hassle, China's domestic AI has advanced rapidly in 2024-2026, with some models approaching or surpassing Claude: These are directly accessible in China without VPN. For Chinese writing/querying, they're fully sufficient. But Claude's 200K context window, long-document analysis, and code review remain industry-leading — that's why China developers risk account bans to use Claude. 💡 Alternative: third-party Claude API proxy services — directly call Claude API fr

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