Identity Verification in Claude: Persona and Action Plans

What changed in Claude identity verification on July 8, 2026?#

Updated October 2, 2026. Verification is no longer “coming into effect”—it is in effect. Anthropic’s identity verification help article was updated August 11, 2026: the wording is the same (“several use cases,” “when accessing certain features”), but this now describes an active process rather than a future announcement.

On April 15, 2026, Anthropic first published its identity verification help article—it then sounded like, “we may ask you to confirm your age and identity.” On July 8, 2026, the requirement was enshrined in the Privacy Policy. On August 11, 2026, the help article received its latest update as of October 2, 2026: the text about documents, Persona, and data protection remained unchanged, and a description of the process for organizations was added (a legal entity confirms its name, address, and registration number in addition to the document and selfie).

As of October 2, 2026, Claude’s Support page describes the process the same way it did in August: which documents are accepted, how Persona processes data, and that Anthropic does not store IDs on its servers. The process has been technically ready and operational for three months. The only question is when Anthropic will show you a request specifically.

Key dates to remember:

• April 15, 2026 — Anthropic first published its identity verification help article.
• July 8, 2026 — The new Privacy Policy took effect. From this point on, Anthropic has a legal basis to request a passport at any time.
• August 11, 2026 — The latest update to the help article as of today: the procedure for organizations (business verification) was added, and the wording about “several use cases” was confirmed again.
• “As part of routine platform integrity checks” — means verification may appear at any time without warning. The company has not disclosed the exact trigger, as of October 2, 2026.

If your account has already been asked to verify and you were denied, that is not the end of the road: an explanation of what to do next and how to appeal is collected in a separate guide, how to keep your Claude account.

Practical materials on models and agents: Ailoot documentation.

Who will verification affect, and who will it not affect?#

Anthropic has divided users into two groups.

Group 1 — subject to verification:

• Claude Free (free plan through claude.ai)
• Claude Pro (personal subscription at $20 per month)
• Claude Max (from $100 per month for heavy use, up to $200 on the 20x tier)
• Claude Code on these subscriptions (no separate fee required; tied to Pro/Max)

Group 2 — NOT subject to verification:

• Claude Team (from $20 per user when billed annually, for teams)
• Claude Enterprise (large corporations, contract)
• Claude API through Anthropic Platform (separate developer account)
• Claude API through AWS Bedrock or Google Vertex (verification is handled through AWS/Google)

The logic is simple: where Anthropic has a contract with a legal entity, KYC has already been done. Where individuals work directly, there was no identity verification contract before July 8; now there will be.

This creates an interesting workaround, discussed in the section on Plan C. The option of using the API through your company formally falls under Commercial Terms, and no personal verification is required. It is a viable plan, but not for everyone.

How will the verification itself work?#

The process is simple—three steps.

1. You receive an invitation in Claude

   A window pops up on the home page or when you try to use a feature: “we need to verify your identity.” Without consent, you cannot proceed—the feature is blocked, or the entire account goes into pending status.

2. You open Persona using the link

   The “Verify identity” button opens an embedded frame or the Persona external app. This is not Anthropic—it is a separate service Anthropic hired.

3. You do two things

   Scan a document (you need a phone camera or webcam—a simple photo from an old screenshot is not accepted) and take a live selfie with the camera in real time. Persona compares the faces.

Documents accepted:

• Passport (international or domestic, with a photo)
• Driver’s license
• State or provincial ID card (for the US/Canada)
• National ID card (for EU countries, the UK, and others)

Documents not accepted:

• Photocopies, screenshots, scans
• “Photo of a photo” (for example, a screenshot of a passport on a phone screen that you photograph again)
• Digital or mobile IDs (Apple Wallet, mDL)
• Student, corporate, or non-government-issued IDs

Age checks are handled through a separate service, Yoti, which looks at your face and estimates your approximate age. If you are under 18, the account is closed regardless of whether you have a passport.

Supported countries and documents#

What Anthropic says. The support page (updated August 11, 2026) says “government-issued photo IDs from most countries.” The verification article itself does not link to a specific list, but Anthropic has a separate Supported Regions Policy page—which determines which countries the company operates in at all.

Data on supported regions in the original list as of October 2, 2026:

Belarus is absent from these lists.

How should you choose an action plan?#

Three plans: complete verification if you have a suitable document, migrate from Claude to an alternative (Codex, Cursor, Cline + your own API), or use Claude Team/Claude API under a legal entity on Commercial Terms. Each plan has its own price and risks.

Question 1: Do you have a Pro or Max subscription, or are you on the free plan?

The risk is lower on the free plan: Anthropic triggers verification less often, and your limits are small anyway.

If you have Pro or Max, you have already paid, and the “account closed” scenario means losing your subscription. Verification has been in effect since July 8, 2026; it is worth deciding now rather than putting it off.

Question 2: Can you set up Claude API under a legal entity (your own or a partner’s)?

API access is covered by Commercial Terms—KYC is already built into signing the contract. The behavior for these accounts does not change.

Each plan is discussed below.

Preparing your document and checking the result#

Step 1: prepare a physical document.

Persona does not accept scans, screenshots, or re-photographed pictures. Only a real camera—on your phone or laptop—capturing a physical document. Do not try to submit a photo of a passport shown on a screen.

Step 2: complete verification proactively.

Anthropic launches verification selectively (“when accessing certain features”). I would try to trigger it myself—check Settings → Privacy & Security and see whether a “Verify identity” button has appeared. If it has, click it right away, while the process is relatively “soft.”

If you pass verification, make a note of it somewhere. Verification has been in effect since July 8, 2026, and the trigger may come at any time; completing verification in advance gives you a head start so you can calmly decide what to do next.

Where to migrate if you cannot pass?#

Below is a comparison table. Detailed explanations of each route are provided in separate guides linked below.

Options:

If you are a solo entrepreneur building your own project. Codex CLI through an API provider. Quality is close to Claude, and the workflow is almost the same. The transition is discussed in detail in the guide how to migrate from Claude Code to Codex in 2026.

If you work in a team and need different models for different tasks. Cline or Aider, and you decide which API to connect for each task. Cline is an open-source VS Code extension—you can connect Anthropic API (through a reseller), OpenAI, DeepSeek, and Chinese models. The Codex and Claude combination is described in how to use Claude Code and Codex together in 2026.

If your budget is tight and quality is secondary. Alibaba’s Qwen 3.7-max—three times cheaper than Claude. A separate review is in the guide Qwen 3.7-max vs Opus 4.7: how to set up a Claude Code competitor at three times lower cost.

If you want to see the overall map first. Check What to code with in 2026—it compares 8 tools in one table.

What stopped working and has not returned.

• Antigravity CLI as a free alternative—on June 18, 2026, Google closed the free plan for individual users; as of October 2, 2026, it is still Enterprise only. Details are in the guide migrating from Gemini CLI to Antigravity CLI before June 18, 2026.
• Third-party clients with a direct Anthropic key—if you get a key as your own user, verification is triggered on the Anthropic side based on the key. Anthropic cannot see the person themselves. This is weak protection.

Can you stay on Claude through the API without verification?#

Plan C works, but it is not for everyone. Conditions follow.

Claude Team:

• From $20 per user per month with annual billing ($25 when billed monthly).
• At least 5 users on the team.
• Registration requires payment in dollars.
• You need to register an organization in the system—technically, Anthropic asks for the organization’s name and a contact person.
• After registration, all team members receive full access to Claude without personal KYC.

Claude API:

• Pay for actual usage—you add funds to your balance, then pay for tokens.

• Minimum top-up: $5.

• You need to set up a developer account—there is KYC there too, but it is less strict (business details are required, not a passport).

Where Plan C breaks down: Anthropic has significantly tightened API checks recently. If you exhibit a suspicious pattern (spend a lot quickly, log in from different IPs), the account is frozen, followed by correspondence with support.

Plan C makes sense if:

• You really have a team of 5+ people, and everyone needs Claude.
• You have a legal entity in a country where Anthropic operates normally.
• You are willing to pay more for stability.

This is a path for businesses, not individuals.

What about projects already made with Claude Code?#

This is an important point on its own, because many readers have weeks of work behind them inside Claude Code.

What definitely remains in any scenario:

• All your project files on disk.
• Your CLAUDE.md files—the text remains yours, but another client may need a different filename and adapted instructions.
• The business/ folder (if you have a second brain)—it transfers as is.
• Skill and subagent definitions—the files remain on disk, but supported metadata, tools, hooks, and invocation formats vary by client and must be checked separately.

What gets blocked if your account is closed:

• The Claude Code terminal client itself (it calls the Anthropic API).
• Your chat history on claude.ai.
• Projects inside Claude Projects (if you created any).

How to move context to a new tool.

1. Back up CLAUDE.md and business/

   Copy these folders somewhere in the cloud or onto a flash drive. This is your second brain; without it, any AI tool works like it does for a beginner.

2. Install an alternative client

   Codex CLI installs with one command: npm install -g @openai/codex. Cline is a VS Code extension. Details are in the migration guides.

3. Add an API key

   Register with the provider you choose, get a key, and enter it in the client settings.

4. Move CLAUDE.md

   For Codex, put applicable project rules in AGENTS.md; CODEX.md is not the default project instructions filename. For Cline, the documented workspace layout uses Markdown files in .clinerules/ or .cline/rules/; use one supported directory and check the Rules panel. Reuse ordinary project context and rules, then adapt client-specific commands, hooks, subagent definitions, skill metadata, and settings separately. Check Codex’s instruction discovery rather than assuming every saved file is automatically loaded.

5. Run one task

   Take a small task and run it in the new client. Make sure the result is on par with what Claude produced. If not, adjust the prompt or change the model.

In the experience described, moving from Claude Code to Codex takes about an hour for an average project. Do not try to do everything on the day your account is closed. It is better to rehearse in advance so you can see where the seams are.

What does Persona do with your data?#

The legal side, briefly.

What this means in practice:

• Your passport and selfie go to Persona Identities’ servers (the company is registered in the US).
• Anthropic receives only the verification result (“yes/no”), not the document itself.
• Persona has not publicly disclosed how long it retains data.
• If you have questions about deletion, the request goes to Persona, not Anthropic.

The argument against trusting it. On February 19–20, 2026, Persona suffered a breach—about 2,500 frontend code files (53 MB). In other words, there is a recent precedent for a compromise of this very service.

What to consider when deciding. I would not give a passport to a service with a public breach in its history unless absolutely necessary. If Plans B and C are realistic for you, pursue them. Plan A, verification, is a decision to make when there is no choice.

What next?#

The takeaway from this situation is simple.

No one can guarantee that access to Claude will not change in a month. And Anthropic makes no promises—they do not say exactly whom they will check or when.

What you can do is prepare so that it does not matter. Move context out of a specific client and into your own system. Put your working prompts, methodologies, and business/ folder somewhere you can copy them into a new tool in an hour. Have a backup plan you have already rehearsed in real life. A plan on paper does not work.

Three practical steps:

1. Back up your context. CLAUDE.md, business/, skills, and working prompts—all of it belongs in git. If you do not have a repo yet, create one this evening.

2. Run one task in an alternative client. Codex or Cline—it does not matter. The goal is to make sure you know how to work there before Claude is disabled.

3. Decide on Plan C if you have a legal entity. Registering Claude Team takes 1–2 days and removes the risk for you as an individual.

Practical materials: Ailoot documentation.

Practical materials: Ailoot documentation.

More materials and tools: Ailoot.