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China’s reported Claude gray market links two steps: intermediaries obtain access through accounts or API credentials established outside the restricted market, then route users’ requests through transfer stations. Reporting also describes one reseller using cards funded with USDT, but does not show how common that payment method is. The arrangement can expose users’ prompts to the intermediary, and access may be disrupted.
What “transfer station” means
A transfer station is an intermediary that accepts a user’s prompt and forwards it to Claude through access the operator has established elsewhere. The user therefore may not be signing in to Claude directly: the intermediary sits between the user and the service, handles the request, and returns the response. WIRED describes this kind of routing as one way people in China access Claude; Anthropic calls such services proxy services. WIRED’s reporting and Anthropic’s September 2026 report describe the arrangement.
The market exists against a background of regional restrictions. A March 2026 report by the Computer & Communications Industry Association said Anthropic had not released its chat interface in China and had restricted API access to Chinese and Hong Kong customers in 2024, citing compliance and security considerations. Anthropic’s September 2026 report describes continuing restrictions and enforcement. These are dated accounts, not a live availability checker; access policy can change. CCIA’s March 2026 report provides the historical context.
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- Acquire access. The Information reports that resellers draw on email addresses and identities accumulated through prior work in crypto, ecommerce, and other sectors to register Claude accounts. In one reseller’s account, a card funded with USDT was used to pay for accounts. The article is subscription-gated, and this reported example does not establish how widespread the practice is. The Information’s account describes these details.
- Make access available to others. An intermediary may sell or share access to an account, or relay users’ requests through API access. WIRED describes a typical transfer station as obtaining Anthropic API access outside China and redistributing tokens to Chinese users. These are distinct routes: one puts an account in a user’s hands; the other keeps the intermediary in the request path. WIRED reports on the API-routing model.
- Forward prompts and responses. With a relay, the user’s request passes through the operator’s service before reaching Claude, and the answer returns by the same path. That intermediary role is the reason prompt privacy is a central concern, not merely a technical detail.
Anthropic’s September 2026 report says proxy services have used false identities, fake or stolen cards, and stolen API keys to bypass geographic restrictions. Those are claims about activity identified by the company, not proof that every reseller uses those methods. The USDT-funded-card example is separately reported by The Information and should not be treated as a market-wide norm.
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How the different routes affect users
| Route | Who controls the access | Who may see prompts | What is established |
|---|---|---|---|
| Account sale or sharing | The account holder or whoever controls the credentials; control can be shared or retained by the seller. | If the user signs in directly, an intermediary is not necessarily forwarding each prompt. The sources do not establish the controls used by individual sellers. | The Information reports accounts registered using accumulated identities; WIRED describes access through intermediary services. The sources do not quantify account sales versus sharing. |
| API or transfer-station relay | The operator controls the upstream API access and the service that forwards requests. | The operator handles prompts in transit and may be able to retain or disclose them. Anthropic and WIRED report cases or risks involving saved or exposed exchanges. | WIRED describes API access obtained outside China and redistributed to users; Anthropic identifies proxy services as a means of routing access. |
| Access used in covert distillation | Anthropic attributes identified account pools and campaigns to particular organizations; this is not ordinary personal account use. | Requests and exchanges are part of a campaign to obtain model outputs at scale. | Anthropic reports investigations into campaigns it characterizes as illicit distillation. Its findings do not measure the whole resale market. |
The distinction matters because a transfer station is not just a way to get a login. It creates a separate party in the data path, while access tied to an account can still be revoked or challenged by the provider. The available reporting does not establish a dependable level of continuity for either route.
What prompt privacy and disruption risks look like
A relay operator handling a prompt may be technically positioned to read or retain it. Anthropic says it has found cases in which proxy operators saved user exchanges without users’ knowledge or consent, and says some labs bought such exchanges for model training. WIRED likewise reports that prompts sent to transfer stations could be exposed or sold. These sources document a risk and practices in some cases; they do not show that every intermediary stores prompts or sells them. Anthropic’s report and WIRED’s reporting explain the concern.
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- Confidentiality: Avoid sending sensitive personal, business, customer, or unpublished material through a service whose operator and retention practices you cannot verify.
- Account continuity: An account or upstream credential can stop working if the provider detects suspected abuse, changes access rules, or requires verification.
- Accountability: When a prompt passes through an intermediary, users may have less visibility into where it is stored and who can access it than with a direct service relationship.
Anthropic says its enforcement uses metadata and irregular-activity signals, classifiers, organizational attribution, bans, and identity verification in some suspected abuse cases. WIRED quoted Anthropic spokesperson Michael Aciman saying the company uses evolving detection systems, including identity verification, and has worked to detect and disrupt proxy networks. These are descriptions of the company’s enforcement approach, not a guarantee that every intermediary will be detected or that every flagged account is abusive.
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Anthropic’s reported findings—and what they do not measure
Anthropic’s September 2026 report combines its own observations of suspected misuse with claims about organizations and campaigns. The company’s numbers are investigation findings and attributions, not independently audited totals or estimates of China’s entire gray market.
- Anthropic says that since its first disclosure in February 2026, it identified and disrupted additional distillation attacks from seven labs based in China.
- The company attributes more than 151 million exchanges between May and July 2026 to an Alibaba campaign. Anthropic says an account pool attributed to that campaign involved nearly 5,000 fraudulent accounts, and that activity peaked at nearly 3 million exchanges a day from more than 3,500 fraudulent accounts.
- In a separate case, Anthropic says requests from Moonshot customers were routed to Claude, totaling almost 300,000 customer requests over ten days. That figure concerns the company’s reported distillation investigation, not routine token-reseller traffic.
Anthropic defines illicit distillation as “an industrial-scale, covert campaign to extract a model’s capabilities and replicate them in another model without authorization.” That category is related to unauthorized access but should not be conflated with every individual buying access through a reseller. The company’s September 2026 report is the source for the definition and figures.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What is known about the market—and what remains uncertain
The reporting supports a clear outline: some intermediaries obtain Claude access through accounts or API credentials, then route requests to users who otherwise face regional restrictions. It also supports a specific report of accumulated identities and one reseller’s USDT-funded cards. It does not establish how many resellers operate, what share use that payment method, how many users rely on each route, or the market’s total volume.
Separate reporting on underground AI-token sales describes prompt-visibility risks in broader criminal markets, but it is not a measurement of China’s Claude-reseller market. IT Pro’s coverage is relevant as wider context, not as a market-size estimate for China.
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