Commercial Models

GWDG offers access to selected commercial foundation models (e.g. OpenAI GPT, Anthropic Claude) via Microsoft Azure or directly via Anthropic Enterprise Licenses. For AI model access via SAIA, including locally hosted and external models, see SAIA. This section documents access to the commercial offering and related Agentic Coding Tools.

Access Options

The commercial model offering consists of three complementary access options. A1 has two variants: locally hosted open-weight models and externally hosted models through the Chat AI and SAIA service layer.

SAIA provides OpenAI-compatible v1 endpoints such as /v1/chat/completions. It does not provide the Responses API. Tools that require the Responses API need A2 access instead.

Current Models

The current commercial portfolio includes the following model families:

• OpenAI GPT-5.5
• Anthropic Claude Sonnet 5
• Anthropic Claude Opus 4.8
• Anthropic Claude Fable 5

For models available through Chat AI and SAIA, including locally hosted open-weight models and external models, see Available Models.

Requesting Access

A2 (Commercial Models via Microsoft Foundry)

To request access to commercially hosted models (A2: direct Microsoft Foundry endpoint), please book the Commercial Models service.

A3 (Anthropic Claude Enterprise License)

To request an enterprise license for Anthropic Claude Enterprise (A3: native vendor access), book the Claude Enterprise service.

This option provides native Anthropic Claude Enterprise access with direct vendor integration, including the Claude desktop and mobile apps as well as Claude Code. We (the GWDG) will handle license management, central user account management, and billing. We also enforce a per-person spending limit, that acts as a technically enforced, hard monthly budget cap. Billing is usage-based and combines fixed and variable components.

To request access, please submit your request through the booking form, specifying your institution, the user email addresses, and the usage limit per person. GWDG will prepare an offer, your procurement office places the order and pays for the first period, while GWDG creates the user accounts and sets the spending limits.

Data Protection Profile

For A1.OS, requests are processed with locally hosted open-weight models in GWDG infrastructure. For A1.EM, requests are routed through the GWDG-controlled Chat AI and SAIA service layer to external providers. SAIA itself does not provide persistent storage of request contents through the Responses API.

For A2, requests go directly to the Microsoft Foundry endpoint. The Responses API can keep conversation state server-side for a limited time. Azure OpenAI Responses API response data is retained for 30 days by default. Extended prompt cache retention can keep cached prefixes active for up to 24 hours. See the Microsoft references on Responses API conversation storage and prompt caching. Because of the Cloud Act, it cannot be excluded that the manufacturers may use the data or be required to provide it to the US government. This access path is therefore intended for use cases where this trade-off is accepted, for example agentic coding on non-sensitive code bases. The GWDG has a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) with Microsoft, stating that your data may not be used for model training.

For A3, the data protection profile depends entirely on the selected vendor license and the vendor’s product terms (Anthropic Claude Enterprise).

Administration and Activation for A1

The administration of A1 is based on the GWDG Identity Management (IdM). Both access permissions and token limits are controlled through the IdM. Because the IdM is multi-tenant, institutes can manage their own users, groups, and quotas independently.

Roles

• Users consume their assigned quotas and request top-ups when needed.
• Users can review their own consumption.
• Users can create API keys with their own sub-limits via self-service.
• Institute administrators set and adjust limits via the IdM, review and approve top-up requests, assign consumption to cost centres, and see the consumption of their own tenant group.
• GWDG operates the platform.

Quotas and Budgeting For A1

Users receive a base quota that can be tied to a group (an institution or working group for example) in our central user- and identity management system. The quota is not free of charge - it is procured at the institute level and made available to users. The granularity defaults to monthly budgets, but other intervals or one-off quotas can be configured at the institute’s discretion.

When a user reaches their hard or soft limit, additional quota can be assigned by an institute administrator without immediately triggering a formal top-up. Justifications for over-limit requests can be reviewed by administrators to track which use cases are driving demand.

Users can create multiple API keys. Each key can carry its own sub-limit up to the user’s assigned quota. This separates tools cleanly - for example one key for a production script and one for an experiment - and protects against runaway consumption from a single application. It also makes per-project cost attribution possible.

Delegation and Multi-Tenancy For A2

The multi-tenant design lets institutes pass resources on to individuals or projects and request additional resources when needed - for example, for a specific project. Top-ups can be performed by authorised administrators.

Administration and Activation for A2

Administration of A2 follows the same model as A1, with the following differences:

• A2 uses soft limits that, for example, trigger an email to the user at 50 % or 100 % consumption. The reason is that hard cost limits per request are not always available from the providers (see Quotas and Budgeting).
• Self-service for creating API keys with sub-limits is not yet available for A2; this feature is currently restricted to A1. A web portal for self-service is planned.
• A2 is not enabled by default but is unlocked for specific use cases where the data-protection trade-off of the Responses API (see Data Protection Profile) is consciously accepted.

Administration and Activation for A3 (Anthropic Claude Enterprise)

A3 follows a different administration model focused on enterprise license management:

Roles

The requester submits the required information - the institution, the user email addresses, and the usage limit per person - through the booking form. The procurement office receives the offer, places the order, and handles billing. GWDG creates the user accounts, sets the per-person spend limits, manages activation, and collects and submits billing information to the procurement office.

Process Flow

The request is submitted through the service booking form, after which GWDG prepares an offer that includes the service description and terms. The procurement office then places the order and transfers the fees for the first billing period. Once payment is received, GWDG activates the service by creating the user accounts and setting the budget limits.

Payment Models

The payment model is intentionally flexible to cover both project-funded usage and small-scale needs.

For A1 and A2

By default, A1 and A2 are billed on a pay-per-use basis, where billing is based on consumed API tokens and maps the acctual provider costs directly to usage. Institutes or users top up an account from which consumption is debited, and once the credit is used up it can be topped up again, which works analogously to the familiar print credit model at universities. Alternatively, a budget limit can be set as a fixed monthly or yearly quota, which is suitable for working groups with regular and stable usage. Through the IdM’s multi-tenancy, consumption can also be booked to cost centres, including arrangements where an institute settles consumption first and bills internally afterwards. For users with small budgets, especially students, micro-payments allow small top-ups on demand without administrative overhead.

For A3 (Anthropic Claude Enterprise)

A3 requires advance payment, because GWDG cannot provide financing. The procurement office must cover the expected costs before the service can be activated. A technically enforced, per-person monthly budget limit protects against unexpectedly high bills. The costs are determined by combining fixed seat costs with usage-based charges. If your balance is used up, please contact support@gwdg.de to top up or increase your monthly allotment.

Agentic Coding

• Agentic Coding
  • Codex
  • Claude Code
  • OpenCode