This isn't anymore of a "ploy" then releasing new features for claude code, or acquiring bun, or any other random improvement or promotion that essentially boils down to offering more value to claude users.

All the big LLM labs do promos constantly. Sure, this one's on the stingy side considering the amount of work OSS maintainers just give out, but there's nothing wrong with promotions.

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yunwal an hour ago | parent [-]

No, giving a "free" subscription that autorenews and charges you $200 if you forget to cancel is definitely a ploy

	▲	elxr an hour ago \| parent [-]
		> If you have an existing paid Anthropic subscription, your current billing will be paused for the duration of the Benefit Period and will resume at your then-current plan and rate at the end of the Benefit Period, unless you cancel. If you have an existing free Anthropic account, the Program subscription will be applied to that account and your free subscription will resume at the end of the Benefit Period, unless you cancel. Wrong. They've explicitly stated it won't autorenew at the Max 20X tier.