TechCrunch reports Replit CEO Amjad Masad said it is no longer working with Anthropic, before he clarified that OpenAI is now its preferred partner
Replit CEO and co-founder Amjad Masad made the comments during TechCrunch Disrupt 2026.
Context
Replit was once one of Anthropic's largest customers, so a shift of its default model to OpenAI could move significant spending between the two labs.
This is a news report from TechCrunch based on Masad's remarks onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt. Masad later clarified on X that Replit remains model agnostic and users can still choose Anthropic models.
Deep dive
On October 16, TechCrunch posted its report on comments Replit CEO and cofounder Amjad Masad made at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026.
According to TechCrunch, Masad said onstage that Replit is no longer working with Anthropic, for reasons including cost. TechCrunch quotes him saying: I think ChatGPT is better now, and that on Replit's internal and public benchmarks, OpenAI's Sol and Astra models consistently perform better at building apps from scratch. He also said Replit had been, until recently, a top five Anthropic customer.
On October 17, Masad posted a clarification: Replit remains model agnostic, users can choose Anthropic models as well as many others, and what he meant is that OpenAI is now the preferred partner powering Replit Agent, based on performance, cost and the strength of the partnership.
TechCrunch's updated article says OpenAI is now the default, which could significantly reduce Replit's spending with Anthropic since most users stick with defaults. It also reports that a person familiar with the partnership said it was still in place, and that a Replit blog post in late September cited Claude Fable 5 and Fable 5.1 as models running in Replit Agent.
Masad also told TechCrunch that enterprise contracts are about 15% of Replit's revenue this year, up from about 2% last year.
What to expect next
Watch whether Anthropic comments on the relationship, and whether Replit publishes the benchmark results Masad cited comparing OpenAI and Anthropic models.
Also watch for pricing differences between the OpenAI default and Claude in Replit Agent, and whether other coding platforms shift their default models for cost or performance reasons. Anthropic's next revenue updates may show whether losing default status at Replit matters.