Replit CEO Amjad Masad announced that OpenAI is now the default model provider for Replit Agent, replacing Anthropic. The decision was driven by cost, performance, and partnership factors.
Replit, an AI coding platform, has switched its default AI model provider from Anthropic to OpenAI, according to statements made by CEO and co-founder Amjad Masad at TechCrunch Disrupt. While Replit announced a partnership with OpenAI in August, the shift away from Anthropic as the default provider was not previously disclosed.
Masad cited cost, performance, and the strength of the partnership as the primary reasons for the change. "I think ChatGPT is better now," Masad said. He noted that Replit uses internal benchmarks and publishes a public benchmark to assess metrics. "Consistently, Sol and Astra perform better on building vibe-coded applications from scratch. It was a decision based on both cost, partnership, and performance. And for all these reasons, we just felt like they were a better partner for now."
The terms "Sol" and "Astra" appear in the context of these performance comparisons, though the sources do not explicitly define them as specific product names, only as entities performing better in the cited benchmarks.
Despite the change in default provider, Masad clarified that Replit remains "model agnostic." Customers can still access Anthropic’s Claude models and other supported models on the platform. "OpenAI is now our preferred partner for powering Replit Agent, based on performance, economics, and the strength of our partnership," Masad told TechCrunch.
However, the extent of the break with Anthropic is disputed. While Masad stated on stage that Replit is "no longer working with Anthropic," insiders familiar with the relationship told TechCrunch that the partnership is still in place. Evidence from Replit’s website and social media indicates that Anthropic products were promoted as recently as late September. A blog post from that period cited Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5 and Claude Fable 5.1 as models running in Replit Agent’s production environment.
Masad also shared details about Replit’s financial growth, particularly regarding its enterprise sector. He stated that enterprise contracts accounted for about 2% of revenue last year, rising to approximately 15% this year. "More than 50% of our revenue is B2B," Masad said. He added that Replit has not disclosed annual recurring revenue (ARR) numbers yet but expects enterprise and government customers to account for more than half of total revenue in 2027.
Prior to the OpenAI deal, Replit relied on Anthropic’s Claude models, a partnership Masad noted had helped the company grow its revenue significantly. He mentioned that Replit had been, until recently, a top-five customer of Anthropic’s.
Masad emphasized the importance of infrastructure for deploying AI agents safely. He described the need for a "habitat" for AI agents, which includes "good orchestration, good error recovery, good safety and security and sandboxing, good networking, good identity and authorization." He argued that once these elements are established, AI can be deployed safely.
The shift highlights the competitive dynamics among AI model providers for developer platform partnerships. By making OpenAI the default, Replit may significantly reduce its spending with Anthropic, as most users tend to stick with default settings. This move reflects broader industry trends where cost and performance benchmarks increasingly influence platform decisions, potentially reshaping the market share of major AI providers.
Sources
This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.
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