How to Use Claude in Hong Kong: VPN Setup and Account Risks

Open Claude from a Hong Kong connection, and you get a short message saying it’s only available in certain regions. The government hasn’t banned it. Anthropic, the company behind Claude, simply doesn’t serve Hong Kong, so the block covers the whole city, from students writing essays to developers who use Claude Code every day.

For a long time, a VPN was the accepted workaround, and it still unblocks the site in seconds. Since October 2026, however, Anthropic has been suspending accounts it links to Hong Kong, paid ones included.

That puts the phone number, the payment card, and your chat history in play alongside the VPN. So can you still use Claude in Hong Kong and keep the account?

Why Claude Doesn’t Work in Hong Kong

Claude is blocked in Hong Kong because Anthropic leaves the city off its official list of supported regions. Mainland China and Macau are missing too, while nearby Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea are on it. The block is Anthropic’s own business decision, and no Hong Kong law stops you from visiting Claude’s site.

Companies feel the block as well. Goldman Sachs has cut its Hong Kong staff off from Anthropic’s models, and crypto exchange OKX did the same after its corporate account was blocked. ChatGPT is blocked in Hong Kong too, for similar licensing reasons, so the same setup covers both chatbots.

A VPN changes your IP address. Connect to a server in Tokyo, and Claude sees a visitor from Japan, so the region message disappears. Getting past that screen is easy. Keeping the account afterward has become much harder.

Why Hong Kong Accounts Are Being Suspended

In early October 2026, Hong Kong users started receiving emails from Anthropic’s safeguards team about “suspicious signals” on their accounts, followed by suspensions. Some had paid for Pro or Max for months while connecting through a VPN.

Anthropic hasn’t announced a new policy, but its help center lists account creation from an unsupported location as a reason for a ban. Anthropic doesn’t publish what triggers a suspension. Affected users point to a few things working together: IP addresses that belong to data centers (which VPN servers do), a card or phone number from one country with logins from another, and frequent jumps between countries.

Claude can also ask for a passport or national ID card plus a live selfie, and passing that check doesn’t protect an account created from an unsupported location. Reports from this wave say appeals rarely succeed when the account was used from Hong Kong.

A banned account can still sign in to export its data, but we wouldn’t count on that. These habits limit the damage:

• Export your data every week or two from Claude’s settings.
• Keep project instructions and long prompts in your own files and inside Claude.
• Stay on one supported country instead of switching servers between sessions.
• Don’t open a replacement account with the same phone number, card, or server after a ban. Users report new accounts getting linked to old ones quickly.

How to Use Claude in Hong Kong With a VPN

Connect the VPN first, then open Claude. In NordVPN, search for Japan in the server list and connect, which takes a few seconds. A Taiwanese server or a Singaporean one works the same way. Avoid your VPN’s Hong Kong servers, since they keep a Hong Kong IP address and Claude stays blocked.

Subscribe to NordVPN

NordVPN’s website works from Hong Kong, so you can subscribe and install the app there. If you’re in the city for a few weeks, the 30-day money-back guarantee covers a short stay.

Once connected, load claude.ai and sign in. When I connected to NordVPN’s Japanese server, Claude loaded normally instead of the region message, and my existing account worked as usual. Use the VPN app instead of a browser extension.

The Claude desktop and mobile apps, and Claude Code in a terminal, use the whole device’s connection, which an extension doesn’t cover. Obfuscation, a setting that hides VPN use from the network you’re on, won’t help with Claude either.

It changes how your traffic looks to Wi-Fi operators, while the IP address Claude sees stays the same.

Signing Up: The Phone Number Rule

To create an account, Claude requires a phone number from a supported country that can receive a text code. A Hong Kong number won’t pass, with or without a VPN.

Two details on Anthropic’s phone verification page shape this advice. The number can’t be changed once the account is verified, and one number can verify up to three accounts. That makes one-time virtual numbers a poor choice: they pass the first code, but if Claude ever asks again, you’ve lost the number for good.

Visitors usually have the simplest answer already: a home number from a supported country. Residents are better off with a prepaid SIM from a supported country that they keep active, the kind people pick up when traveling around Asia.

Paying for Claude Pro or Max

Anthropic checks the card too. Its card-declined help page requires the billing address and the card’s origin country to be in a supported location, and to match each other. Hong Kong-issued cards are declined at checkout, and a VPN doesn’t change that.

Workarounds draw attention. Subscribers who paired Hong Kong cards with foreign addresses, or relied on virtual cards, reported that their plans were ended after fraud and location reviews.

A card issued in a supported country, in your own name and with its actual billing address, is the setup least likely to be flagged.

Using Claude Code and the API

Claude Code signs in with the same Claude account, so the regional block and the suspension risk come with it. Connect the VPN app before you run it in the terminal.

Developer accounts for the API are tied to the same list of supported regions, so a separate API key doesn’t sidestep the rules.

Best VPNs for Claude in Hong Kong

Claude uses very little bandwidth, so raw speed isn’t the deciding test. The useful checks are server choice in nearby supported countries, apps for every device you use Claude on, and a connection that stays stable through long sessions.

1. NordVPN: Best VPN for Claude Overall

NordVPN has more than 130 servers in Japan and over 100 in Taiwan, so a busy server is easy to swap for another in the same country. On its Japanese servers, it lost about 16% of our speed, which you won’t notice while Claude writes a long answer or Claude Code edits a project.

For a steadier setup, NordVPN sells a dedicated IP address in Tokyo or Singapore, one that only you use. It won’t prevent a suspension on its own, but your location looks the same every time you connect. Its next-gen antivirus, included from the Complete plan up, blocks malicious sites, trackers, and ads on hotel and café Wi-Fi.

If your travels include mainland China, NordVPN’s obfuscated servers work there, hiding VPN use from the network. The Basic plan costs under $3.50 a month on a two-year term, and Android users can start with a three-day free trial.

Visit NordVPN

2. Proton VPN: Best for Privacy

Proton VPN has 315 servers across Tokyo and Osaka and 234 in Singapore, so you’ll rarely end up on a crowded one. Its strength is privacy. It’s based in Switzerland, keeps no logs (a claim independent auditors have checked several times), and publishes the source code of its apps.

Secure Core sends your traffic through a hardened server in a privacy-friendly country before it leaves for Japan, and in our tests it slowed the connection by about 12%, a fair trade when you’re discussing sensitive work with an AI.

VPN Plus, Proton VPN’s paid plan, costs under $3 a month on a two-year term and covers ten devices. Its free plan also works as a backup, since the countries it assigns are on Claude’s supported list.

Visit Proton VPN

3. ExpressVPN: Best for Ease of Use

ExpressVPN suits beginners who want Claude working with one click. Its app lists four Japanese locations, Tokyo, Osaka, Shibuya, and Yokohama, and it connected in one to two seconds in our tests, the quickest of any VPN we’ve timed.

Lightway, its own protocol, keeps the connection steady when you switch between Wi-Fi and mobile data on your phone. Its no-logs policy has stood up in an actual investigation, when authorities seized one of its servers and found no user data.

Obfuscation is automatic, and ExpressVPN also works in China for trips across the border. The Basic plan costs under $3 a month on a two-year term and covers ten devices, with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Visit ExpressVPN

Can a Free VPN Unblock Claude?

Yes, with limits. Proton VPN’s free plan picks a server for you, and its free locations, including Japan, Singapore, the US, and the Netherlands, are countries Claude supports. The free plan covers one device, and after a few server changes, the app makes you wait before switching again.

Windscribe’s free plan lets you choose a country yourself, within 10 GB a month once you confirm an email address. Skip its free Hong Kong server, which keeps a Hong Kong IP address. Stay away from Urban VPN.

Security researchers at Koi found its browser extension had been capturing full conversations with AI chatbots, Claude included, and passing them to an affiliated data broker. A free VPN that reads your prompts defeats the point of using one for work.

Verdict

A VPN still unblocks Claude in Hong Kong, and on a Japanese, Taiwanese, or Singaporean server it works as it does anywhere else. These days, the account is the weak point. Since the October 2026 suspensions, three things decide how long an account lasts.

• Phone number from a supported country that you keep,
• Card issued in a supported country
• Location that doesn’t jump around.

NordVPN covers the VPN part well, with servers in Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore and a dedicated IP address option. Our list of the best VPNs for Hong Kong covers local streaming and everyday use if you want one VPN for both.

If Claude is part of your job, treat the account as one that can disappear overnight. Export your chats regularly and keep your prompts in your own files, so a suspension email costs you an afternoon instead of months of work.

Try NordVPN Risk-Free

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