Anthropic officially launched the Claude Partner Network Services Track and a new Partner Hub portal on July 26, 2026 — formalizing the four-tier structure that had been visible in partner documentation for weeks. If you do Claude/MCP consulting or implementation work, this is the program that determines whether you show up in Anthropic's official partner directory, and it comes with a $100M partner enablement fund behind it.
Here's what the tiers actually require, what you get at each level, and why the free tier is worth registering for even if you have no interest in climbing higher.
The Four Tiers
| Tier | Requirements | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Registered | None — open to any org already delivering AI solutions | Free |
| Select | 10 certified practitioners + 2 production deployments + 1 public endorsement | Free to apply |
| Preferred | 100 practitioners + 15 customers + 3 endorsements | Free to apply |
| Global Premier | 1,000 practitioners + 100 joint customers across 3+ regions + 15 published stories + an executive sponsor | Free to apply |
The entry tier — Registered — has no practitioner floor. That's the detail that gets lost when people assume the whole program is gated behind a "10 certified staff" requirement. The 10-practitioner minimum applies to Select and up, not to basic registration. If your org is already delivering AI solutions (not just exploring the space), you qualify for Registered today.
What You Get at Each Level
- Registered — access to the Partner Hub portal, Anthropic's partner training academy, and eligibility to sit the Claude certification exams (CCAO-F, CCDV-F, CCAR-F, CCAR-P). This is also the tier that unlocks member pricing on those exams.
- Select and above — directory visibility for lead generation, deeper technical enablement, and access to the $100M partner enablement fund Anthropic is putting behind the program.
- Global Premier — the top tier, reserved for firms with regional scale and an internal executive sponsor driving the relationship.
Anthropic also rolled out an MCP connector that lets partner firms query their own Partner Hub status — tier, requirements remaining, deployment counts — directly from inside Claude, instead of logging into a separate portal.
Why Registration Matters Even If You Never Go Past Tier 1
Three things make the free tier worth the five minutes it takes to register:
- Certification exam access. The four-exam Claude certification family (CCAO-F, CCDV-F, CCAR-F, and CCAR-P) is gated behind a Partner Network org email at checkout — personal email addresses get rejected. If you want to sit the exam at all, you need to be Registered under an organizational domain first. See our CCA exam guide for what the four exams actually cover.
- It costs nothing and requires no floor. Unlike Select and above, there's no practitioner count, no deployment history, and no endorsement to produce. If your org delivers Claude/MCP work today, you already qualify.
- It's the first rung on the Select/Preferred/Global Premier ladder. Every higher tier requires being Registered first, so there's no version of pursuing partner status that skips this step.
How to Register
Registration happens at Anthropic's Partner Portal (partnerportal.anthropic.com). You'll need an organizational (not personal) email address tied to your consulting or implementation business. There's no application review gate at the Registered tier — it's closer to a signup than an application.
Who This Actually Matters For
If you're doing freelance or small-shop Claude/MCP consulting — the kind of work we cover in our consulting practice and our MCP servers guide — Registered tier is low-risk and high-value: it's the gate for exam access and the first step toward directory visibility if you decide to scale. It won't put you in front of enterprise buyers on its own (that's what Select and above are for), but there's no reason not to have it.
The Bottom Line
The Services Track launch confirms what partner documentation had signaled for weeks: Registered tier is free and floorless, the real requirements kick in at Select (10 practitioners, 2 deployments, 1 endorsement), and certification exam access runs through Partner Network membership rather than being open to anyone with a credit card. If Claude/MCP work is part of your business, registering costs nothing and unlocks exam eligibility — there's no reason to leave it undone.