Interactive · Anthropic R&D Automation Index

Claude leads 26% of Anthropic's own AI research — and nothing runs fully autonomously

Share of Anthropic's AI research and development work at each automation level, August 2026. The levels nest: the 26% at AL4 sits inside the 90%+ at AL3 or above. Hover any bar for detail.

AL3 · Collaborates or above with human direction 90%+ AL4 · Leads human supervises 26% AL5 · Fully autonomous no human in the loop 0%
<1% → 26%
Claude's AL4 share of Anthropic's AI R&D, February to August 2026
~30,000
Agents doing research and engineering work on Anthropic's most-used internal platform, at any one time

How to read it. The Automation Level scale runs from AL0 (no AI involvement) to AL5 (fully autonomous, no human in the loop). AL3 means the model collaborates under close human direction; AL4 means it leads, completing most of a task from a high-level prompt while a human supervises. The share at AL3 or above therefore includes the AL4 share.

Source: Anthropic, Measurements for understanding the pace of AI development inside frontier labs, published September 17, 2026 (prototype R&D Automation Index; Epoch AI automation levels). Figures are Anthropic's own, self-reported and not independently verified. anthropic.com