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Anthropic's Claude models bring advanced conversational AI capabilities to Microsoft Foundry, providing state-of-the-art language understanding and generation for intelligent applications. Claude models excel at complex reasoning, code generation, and multimodal tasks including image analysis. This article describes the available Claude models, how they're hosted and billed, supported APIs, capabilities, quotas, and best practices.
To deploy and call a Claude model, see Deploy and use Claude models in Microsoft Foundry.
Important
Items marked (preview) in this article are currently in public preview. This preview is provided without a service-level agreement, and we don't recommend it for production workloads. Certain features might not be supported or might have constrained capabilities. For more information, see Supplemental Terms of Use for Microsoft Azure Previews.
How Claude models are hosted and billed
Microsoft Foundry offers Claude models in two versions:
- Version 1: Hosted on Anthropic infrastructure; these models run on Anthropic's infrastructure (outside of Azure).
- Version 2: Hosted on Azure; these models run on Azure infrastructure end-to-end and are all Generally available (GA).
Not all models are available in both versions. A model's lifecycle stage, such as Preview or Generally available, can differ between the two versions. For per-model availability and lifecycle status, see Available Claude models.
To compare both hosting options across data residency, SLAs, support paths, compliance, and purchasing flow, see Compare Azure-hosted and Anthropic-hosted Claude models.
Note
You access Claude models in Microsoft Foundry through Foundry Models from partners and community. Models from partners and community that Anthropic sells and operates are Non-Microsoft Products under the Product Terms.
Claude models in Foundry require an Azure Marketplace subscription and bill through Claude Consumption Units (CCU). Ensure that you have the permissions required to subscribe to model offerings before you deploy. For pricing details, see Claude Consumption Units (CCU) billing in Microsoft Foundry.
Available Claude models
The following table compares model availability for both versions of Claude models in Foundry. For details on the features referenced in the table, see the Capabilities and advanced features section.
Warning
1M context beta on Claude Sonnet 4.5 was retired on April 30, 2026.
Starting May 1, 2026:
- Requests greater than 200K tokens that include the
context-1m-2025-08-07beta header on Sonnet 4.5 return an error. - Requests 200K tokens or fewer remain unaffected, even with the header present.
To migrate, remove the context-1m-2025-08-07 beta header from your requests. For workloads that require 1M context, migrate to Claude Sonnet 4.6 (where 1M context is generally available) or to Claude Opus 4.6 or Claude Opus 4.7 for higher-intelligence workloads.
| Model | Availability | Context window / Max output | Key capabilities | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
claude-mythos-51 |
|
1M / 128K |
|
|
claude-fable-5 |
|
1M / 128K |
|
|
claude-mythos-preview1 |
|
1M / 128K |
|
|
claude-opus-5 |
|
1M / 128K |
|
|
claude-opus-4-8 |
|
1M / 128K |
|
|
claude-opus-4-7 |
|
1M / 128K |
|
|
claude-opus-4-6 |
|
1M / 128K |
|
|
claude-opus-4-5 |
|
200K / 64K |
|
|
claude-sonnet-5 |
|
1M / 128K |
|
|
claude-sonnet-4-6 |
|
1M / 128K |
|
|
claude-sonnet-4-5 |
|
200K / 64K |
|
|
claude-haiku-4-5 |
|
200K / 64K |
|
|
1 Claude Mythos 5 and Claude Mythos Preview are only available as gated research preview. Access to the models is granted solely at Anthropic's discretion and prioritized for defensive cybersecurity use cases. See the Claude Mythos Preview system card and Claude Mythos 5 system card for responsible use guidance.
2 Claude Fable 5 applies additional input/output classifiers that might refuse requests whose content triggers dual-use safeguard policies. When a refusal occurs, the request returns a successful (200) response with a refusal indicator stop_reason: "refusal" instead of model-generated content. You're not billed for input tokens that are refused.
3 Per-turn effort controls, Mid-conversation, and Token budgets are currently in Beta state.
API overview
The following table lists the APIs that you can use to interact with both the Hosted on Azure and Hosted on Anthropic infrastructure versions of Claude models in Foundry.
Use the Anthropic SDKs and the following Claude APIs:
Tip
The Hosted on Anthropic infrastructure version of Claude models in Foundry supports more APIs than the ones listed in this table. You can see them on the Claude API docs: API overview page.
| API | Description |
|---|---|
Messages1 (POST /v1/messages) |
Core Messages API: Send a structured list of input messages with text or image content, including streaming responses. The model generates the next message in the conversation. |
Token counting (POST /v1/messages/count_tokens) |
Token Count API: Count the number of tokens in a message before sending it to Claude. |
1You can call the Messages API from the anthropic Python package, the @anthropic-ai/foundry-sdk JavaScript package, or directly through REST. The deployment endpoint follows the shape https://<resource-name>.services.ai.azure.com/anthropic/v1/messages, and REST and JavaScript clients use the anthropic-version: 2023-06-01 header.
Capabilities and advanced features
Claude models in Foundry expose core capabilities for processing, analyzing, and generating content, and tools that let Claude interact with external systems, execute code, and perform automated tasks. Claude's API surface is organized into five areas:
The following sections and tables summarize capabilities available across the Hosted on Azure and Hosted on Anthropic infrastructure versions of Claude models in Foundry. Unless noted, a capability applies to both versions.
Tip
The Hosted on Anthropic infrastructure version of Claude models in Foundry supports more capabilities than the ones listed in these tables. You can see the full list of capabilities on Claude Platform Docs: Features overview.
For more information about the available capabilities and advanced features for Claude models in Foundry, see the Microsoft Developer Blog.
Model capabilities
Ways to steer Claude and Claude's direct outputs, including response format, reasoning depth, and input modalities.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Streaming messages | When creating a Message, set "stream": true to incrementally stream the response using server-sent events (SSE). |
| Thinking | Enhanced reasoning capabilities for complex tasks, providing transparency into Claude's step-by-step thought process before delivering its final answer. See Thinking and effort for thinking parameter values per model. |
| Adaptive thinking | Let Claude dynamically decide when and how much to think. This feature is the only thinking mode on Claude 4.7 and later models. Use the effort parameter to control thinking depth. |
| Effort | Control how many tokens Claude uses when responding, trading off between response thoroughness and token efficiency. See Thinking and effort for effort parameter values per model. |
| Citations | Ground Claude's responses in sources, including search results content blocks search_result. |
| Images and vision | Process and analyze content from images. Hosted on Azure deployments only accept base64 encoded or URL-based images. |
| PDF support | Process and analyze text and visual content from PDF documents. Provide PDFs as base64 or URL. |
| 1M context window | Up to 1 million tokens for processing large documents, extensive codebases, and long conversations. Support is subject to model eligibility. |
| Structured outputs | Constrain Claude's responses to follow a specific JSON schema, using two complementary features: JSON outputs (the output_config.format parameter) for structured responses, and strict tool use (strict: true) for validated tool inputs. For Hosted on Azure deployments, structured outputs also support the legacy parameter for JSON outputs (the output_format parameter). |
Thinking and effort
The Thinking feature allows specific values for the thinking parameter type, depending on the model, as described in the following table. The adaptive type configures the adaptive thinking feature, allowing the model to decide whether to think, based on query complexity and effort level. For example, thinking={"type": "adaptive"}.
| Model | adaptive |
enabled |
disabled |
|---|---|---|---|
claude-mythos-5 |
Yes | No | No |
claude-fable-5 |
Yes | No | No |
claude-mythos-preview |
Yes | Yes | No |
claude-opus-5 |
Yes | No | Yes1 |
claude-opus-4-8 |
Yes | No | Yes |
claude-opus-4-7 |
Yes | No | Yes |
claude-opus-4-6 |
Yes | Yes | Yes |
claude-sonnet-5 |
Yes | No | Yes |
claude-sonnet-4-6 |
Yes | Yes | Yes |
1 Thinking can be disabled only at effort high or below
The Effort feature allows specific effort levels for each model, as described in the following table. The xhigh level produces the same result as max.
| Model | low |
medium |
high |
xhigh |
max |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
claude-mythos-5 |
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
claude-fable-5 |
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
claude-opus-5 |
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
claude-opus-4-8 |
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
claude-opus-4-7 |
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
claude-opus-4-6 |
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
claude-sonnet-5 |
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
claude-sonnet-4-6 |
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
Tools
Let Claude take actions on the web or in your environment. This feature consists of built-in tools that Claude invokes through tool_use. The platform runs server-side tools, and you implement and execute client-side tools.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Tool use with client-executed tools | Custom tools plus Anthropic-defined bash, text editor, computer use, and memory. For more information about these tools, see Bash, Text editor, Computer use, and Memory. |
| Web search | Discover current real-world data from across the web to use to augment Claude's knowledge. For Hosted on Azure deployments, only the web_search_20250305 tool version is supported. |
| Web fetch | Retrieve and perform in-depth analysis of full content from specified web pages and PDF documents, augmenting Claude's context with live web content. On Foundry, web fetch requires a Hosted on Anthropic infrastructure deployment. For Hosted on Azure deployments, only the web_fetch_20250910 tool version is supported. |
Tool infrastructure
Discover, orchestrate, and scale tool use.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Fine-grained tool streaming | Stream tool use parameters without buffering or JSON validation, reducing latency for large parameters. Requires the anthropic-beta header fine-grained-tool-streaming-2025-05-14. |
| MCP connector | Connect to remote MCP servers directly from the Messages API without a separate MCP client. |
| Tool search | Scale to thousands of tools by dynamically discovering and loading tools on demand using regex- and BM25-based search, optimizing context usage and improving tool selection accuracy. For Hosted on Azure deployments, both the tool_search_tool_bm25_20251119 and tool_search_tool_regex_20251119 tool versions are supported. The legacy aliases tool_search_tool_bm25 and tool_search_tool_regex are also accepted. |
Context management
Control and optimize Claude's context window for long-running sessions.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Automatic prompt caching | Simplify prompt caching to a single API parameter. The system automatically caches the last cacheable block in your request, moving the cache point forward as conversations grow. |
| Prompt caching (5m) | Provide Claude with more background knowledge and example outputs to reduce costs and latency. |
| Prompt caching (1hr) | Extended 1-hour cache duration for less frequently accessed but important context, complementing the standard 5-minute cache. |
| Context editing | Automatically manage conversation context with configurable strategies, including clearing tool results and managing thinking blocks. Requires the anthropic-beta header context-management-2025-06-27. |
| Token counting | Token counting enables you to determine the number of tokens in a message before sending it to Claude, helping you make informed decisions about your prompts and usage. |
Files and assets
Manage the documents and data you provide to Claude.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Files API | Currently available only on Hosted on Anthropic infrastructure deployments. Upload and manage files to use with Claude without re-uploading content with each request. Supports PDFs, images, and text files. |
Agent support
- Microsoft Agent Framework supports creating agents that use Claude models.
- Build custom AI agents with the Claude Agent SDK.
Deployment types and regions
Claude models in Foundry are available for the following deployment types in specific Azure regions:
- Global Standard: All Claude models (Hosted on Azure and Hosted on Anthropic infrastructure).
- Data Zone Standard (US): Hosted on Azure versions of
claude-opus-5,claude-opus-4-8, andclaude-sonnet-5.
For the exact Azure regions where Claude models are available for deployment, see Region availability by deployment type.
Quotas and rate limits
This section explains how deployments share quota and what rate limits apply to them. Subscription-level management handles the deployment quota. Resources and regions share the quota instead of allocating it separately for each resource or region.
- All Global Standard deployments of the same model and version in a subscription draw from one shared quota pool across all regions.
- All Data Zone Standard deployments of the same model and version in a subscription draw from a shared quota pool within each data zone (for example, US).
For more information about quota management for Foundry Models, see Microsoft Foundry Models quotas and limits.
Cache-aware ITPM
Claude models in Foundry measure rate limits in requests per minute (RPM), uncached input tokens per minute (ITPM), and output tokens per minute (OTPM) for each model.
For most Claude models, only uncached input tokens count toward your ITPM rate limits. These tokens include:
Input tokens — tokens in the request after the last cache breakpoint (uncached input).
Cache creation input tokens — tokens being written to cache, which comprises:
- Cache write 5m TPM — tokens being written to the 5-minute prompt cache.
- Cache write 1h TPM — tokens being written to the 1-hour prompt cache.
Tip
The total input tokens is the sum of Input tokens, Cache creation input tokens, and Cache read input tokens (the tokens read from cache). However, the Cache read input tokens don't count towards ITPM. OTPM also doesn't count towards ITPM.
For more information about rate limits and cache, see Claude API Docs: Rate limits.
Rate limits by subscription type
Your Azure subscription type determines your rate limits. The Version 2: Hosted on Azure and Version 1: Hosted on Anthropic infrastructure columns indicate whether quota is available for that model and deployment type combination. Yes means quota is available. N/A means the model and version combination don't have quota for that deployment type.
The following table lists rate limits. To increase your quota beyond the default limits, submit a request through the quota increase request form.
Pay-as-you-go
| Model | Deployment type | Version 2: Hosted on Azure | Version 1: Hosted on Anthropic infrastructure | RPM | ITPM | OTPM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| claude-fable-5 | Global Standard | N/A | Yes | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| claude-opus-5 | Global Standard | Yes | Yes | 40 | 40,000 | 8,000 |
| claude-opus-5 | Data Zone Standard (US) | Yes | N/A | 40 | 40,000 | 8,000 |
| claude-opus-4-8 | Global Standard | Yes | Yes | 40 | 40,000 | 8,000 |
| claude-opus-4-8 | Data Zone Standard (US) | Yes | N/A | 40 | 40,000 | 8,000 |
| claude-opus-4-7 | Global Standard | N/A | Yes | 40 | 40,000 | 8,000 |
| claude-opus-4-6 | Global Standard | N/A | Yes | 40 | 40,000 | 8,000 |
| claude-opus-4-5 | Global Standard | N/A | Yes | 40 | 40,000 | 8,000 |
| claude-sonnet-5 | Global Standard | Yes | Yes | 40 | 40,000 | 8,000 |
| claude-sonnet-5 | Data Zone Standard (US) | Yes | N/A | 40 | 40,000 | 8,000 |
| claude-sonnet-4-6 | Global Standard | N/A | Yes | 80 | 80,000 | 16,000 |
| claude-sonnet-4-5 | Global Standard | N/A | Yes | 80 | 80,000 | 16,000 |
| claude-haiku-4-5 | Global Standard | Yes | Yes | 80 | 80,000 | 16,000 |
Responsible AI considerations
When using Claude models in Foundry, consider these responsible AI practices:
Review Data, privacy, and security for Claude models in Microsoft Foundry to understand how your data is processed and retained when you deploy Claude models.
Configure AI content safety during model inference, because Foundry doesn't provide built-in content filtering for Claude models at deployment time.
Ensure your applications comply with Anthropic's Acceptable Use Policy. Also, see details of safety evaluations for Claude Fable 5, Claude Mythos 5, Claude Mythos Preview, Claude Opus 5, Claude Opus 4.8, Claude Opus 4.7, Claude Opus 4.6, Claude Opus 4.5, Claude Sonnet 5, Claude Sonnet 4.6, Claude Sonnet 4.5, and Claude Haiku 4.5.
Best practices
Follow these best practices when working with Claude models in Foundry:
Prompt engineering
- Clear instructions: Provide specific and detailed prompts.
- Context management: Use the available context window effectively.
- Role definitions: Use system messages to define the assistant's role and behavior.
- Structured prompts: Use consistent formatting for better results.
Cost optimization
To optimize your usage and avoid rate limiting:
- Implement retry logic: Handle 429 responses with exponential backoff.
- Batch requests: Combine multiple prompts when possible.
- Monitor token usage: Track your token consumption and request patterns.
- Use appropriate models: Use the most cost-effective model for your use case. See Available Claude models.