Claude in Russia without a VPN or a subscription: how to use it in 2026
Claude in Russia isn't officially available: Anthropic doesn't serve Russian users, and a Claude Pro subscription can't be paid with a Russian card. There's a simpler way than a VPN — a RuAPI key and the free chat app Cherry Studio: you chat with the same Claude models and pay in USDT only for the messages you send. No Anthropic account or foreign card needed.
$ curl https://www.ruapi.ai/v1/chat/completions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer sk-..." \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"model": "claude-sonnet-5-5",
"messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}]
}'This example is for programmers. A chat app only needs your RuAPI key and the address https://www.ruapi.ai/v1 (in Cherry Studio it is https://www.ruapi.ai — the app adds /v1 itself).
Why Claude doesn't work in Russia and what to do about it
Claude.ai and the Claude apps don't serve Russia.
Russia isn't on Anthropic's list of supported countries, and that list covers claude.ai, the Claude apps and the API (anthropic.com/supported-countries, 01.11.2026). www.ruapi.ai opens from Russia without a VPN, and Claude answers in a chat app on your computer.
Claude Pro can't be paid for from Russia.
Claude Pro costs $20 a month billed monthly or $17 a month billed annually, Max is $100 and Ultra $200 (claude.com/pricing, 01.11.2026), and Russian bank cards don't work abroad (Visa and Mastercard suspended operations in Russia in March 2022). A RuAPI balance is topped up in USDT, from 5 USDT, with no foreign card and no monthly fee: you're charged only for your messages.
Russian Claude accounts have been reported blocked since October 2026.
In early October 2026, users in Russia reported blocks of Claude accounts they had been using through a VPN; Anthropic's emails cite “suspicious signals” and a rules violation, and an appeal does not help everyone (Anti-Malware.ru, 02.10.2026). With RuAPI you don't need an Anthropic account: sign in by email, Google or Yandex, and your chat history stays in your chat app.
How to use Claude in Russia: 3 steps
You need a RuAPI account, a key and a chat app that accepts a custom API. Setup takes about 10 minutes, no coding required.
Sign up and top up
Sign up at www.ruapi.ai by email, Google or Yandex — no phone number needed. Top up in USDT or USDC, from 5 USDT. If you don't have crypto yet, you can buy USDT for roubles via SBP — guide: docs.ruapi.ai/en/buy-usdt. If you hold a foreign bank card (Visa / Mastercard), you don't need crypto at all: pay by card.
You can try it before paying: new accounts usually get $0.05 right away. On the trial balance the Claude model that works is claude-haiku-5-5; claude-sonnet-5-5, claude-opus-5-5 and the rest unlock after your first top-up.
Create an API key
In the Console, open API Keys and click Create API key. The key starts with sk- — it's your chat app's password to your balance, so don't share it. You can set a spending limit on the key so the app never spends more than the amount you choose.
Install Cherry Studio and add RuAPI
- Download Cherry Studio — a free, open-source app for Windows, macOS and Linux — from cherry-ai.com or the GitHub releases page.
- Quick way: Console → API Keys → Connect Claude Code, Cline & more → Cherry Studio → Add RuAPI to Cherry Studio. The RuAPI provider is added for you.
- By hand: on first launch — Set up another provider → Add Provider (if Cherry Studio is already set up — Settings → Model Provider → Add Provider). Provider Name — RuAPI, API Key — your sk-… key, the OpenAI field under Endpoint settings — https://www.ruapi.ai; click Add.
- Model: in the list that opens click Skip, then + next to Sync models, enter the ID claude-haiku-5-5 and click Add Model. After topping up, click Sync models and tick claude-sonnet-5-5 and claude-opus-5-5. Then Model Check → Start, open Chat and pick a model under RuAPI.
- If you prefer a browser chat on your own server, use Open WebUI (API Base URL — https://www.ruapi.ai/v1) or LibreChat (a custom endpoint in librechat.yaml with the same address).
Step by step with screenshots: docs.ruapi.ai/en/integrations/cherry-studio · Open WebUI: docs.ruapi.ai/en/integrations/open-webui · LibreChat: docs.ruapi.ai/en/integrations/librechat
What to enter in the chat app
Address and key
https://www.ruapi.ai/v1
Cherry Studio: https://www.ruapi.ai
key: sk-… from the Console
Claude models
claude-sonnet-5-5
claude-opus-5-5
claude-haiku-5-5 — also on the trial
Payment
USDT / USDC, from 5 USDT
no foreign card
no subscription
How much chatting with Claude costs
Prices in US dollars per 1M tokens, from the pricing page. A token is a piece of a word; your message and Claude's reply are billed separately. Rule of thumb: a question of about 2,000 tokens including chat history plus a 500-token reply costs about $0.011 on claude-sonnet-5-5, about $0.022 on claude-opus-5-5 and about $0.0005 on claude-haiku-5-5. This is an estimate — the exact charge is in the Console request log.
| model | input $/M | output $/M |
|---|---|---|
| claude-sonnet-5-5 | $2.40 cache read $0.12 | $12.00 |
| claude-opus-5-5 | $4.80 cache read $0.24 | $24.00 |
| claude-haiku-5-5 | $0.12 cache read $0.0120 >100K: $0.60 | $0.60 >100K: $3.00 |
| claude-fable-5-2 | $9.60 cache read $0.24 | $48.00 |
| claude-sonnet-4-6 | $3.60 cache read $0.36 | $18.00 |
| claude-opus-4-8 | $6.00 cache read $0.60 | $30.00 |
Columns: input — input tokens (your message plus the earlier conversation, which the app sends again), output — the model's reply, cache read — the repeated part of the request served from cache. The longer the chat, the more each next message costs, so it's handy to start a new chat for a new topic. By this estimate, $5 covers about 450 claude-sonnet-5-5 messages. Chat apps using the OpenAI format usually don't set cache_control marks; RuAPI adds them itself when you reply within 5 minutes, but the estimate assumes no cache discount.
The grey “>100K” line is the vendor’s rate for long requests: if a request goes over the threshold, the whole request is billed at that rate.
Claude through RuAPI or a Claude Pro subscription
| RuAPI + chat app | Claude Pro subscription | |
|---|---|---|
| Access from Russia | No VPN | Russia is not on the supported countries list |
| Payment | USDT / USDC from 5 USDT; foreign bank cards too | Bank card; Russian cards don't work abroad |
| What you pay | Only for the messages you send, no monthly fee | $20 a month (or $17 a month billed annually) |
| Limits | As long as you have balance; you set the spending limit | Usage limits every 5 hours and every week |
| Account | No Anthropic account needed | Anthropic account; blocks of Russian accounts reported since October 2026 |
| Interface | Cherry Studio, Open WebUI or LibreChat; GPT, Gemini and DeepSeek in the same window | claude.ai and the Claude apps with their own features |
Claude plans per claude.com/pricing, country list per anthropic.com/supported-countries (checked 01.11.2026); account blocks per Anti-Malware.ru, 02.10.2026.