Can You Use Claude and Keep Your Data in the EU?

1. The Short Answer

Yes, and the route you choose decides it.

Anthropic's own plans store your data in the US. That covers Claude Team, Claude Enterprise and the Claude API, and none of them has a setting that keeps processing in Europe.

Two clouds can keep Claude in the EU today: Amazon Bedrock and Google Cloud, when your requests go to an EU endpoint (the address your software sends prompts to). Microsoft says Claude in Microsoft 365 Copilot will process data inside its EU Data Boundary by the end of 2026.

Two terms matter here. Data residency is where your data is stored. Processing is where the model reads your prompt and writes its answer, and a promise to keep data in Europe usually needs both.

This guide reflects vendor pages read on November 6, 2026. It is operational guidance, not legal advice; your counsel or data protection officer owns the interpretation.

2. Five Ways to Use Claude, Compared

The same Claude models reach your firm by five routes. Each one draws the data line in a different place.

Read the last column twice. Most mistakes come from picking the right provider and the wrong endpoint.

3. Anthropic's Own Plans Keep Data in the US

If your firm buys Claude Team or Enterprise, or calls the Claude API directly, Anthropic is your provider. Its privacy center says your data is stored in the US.

Processing can happen in more places. By default, Anthropic can route your prompts to the US, Europe, Asia or Australia.

Every setting Anthropic offers points to the US. On the API, each request runs worldwide by default or in the US only, and the US is the only storage location on offer (API documentation). Enterprise plans on usage-based billing can switch the whole organization to US-only processing.

That suits a US firm. A firm that promised European clients or investors to keep their data in Europe should keep that data out of these plans until Anthropic offers an EU option, or until counsel approves the transfer.

You can split the work. Send client personal data through an EU endpoint, and use Claude Enterprise for work that carries none, such as research on public companies.

4. Amazon Bedrock and Google Cloud Keep It in the EU Today

Both run Claude inside your own cloud account, in a region you choose. Anthropic's regional compliance page lists Europe as available on both, and says regional endpoints keep storage and processing inside the region you specify.

On Amazon Bedrock, call Claude in an EU Region, or use an EU cross-Region inference profile, which spreads requests across a fixed list of EU Regions. AWS says a profile tied to a geography keeps the same destination list. Keep EU data off the Global profile, which can send requests to any commercial Region, and ask your AWS team to block it with service control policies.

On Google Cloud, use the EU multi-region endpoint or a European regional endpoint such as Belgium (europe-west1). Google's data residency page says the EU endpoint keeps processing inside EU member states, and it lists EU processing for current Claude models. The global endpoint makes no residency promise, and an organization policy can block it.

Pick the version AWS or Google runs. Both clouds also sell Claude that Anthropic operates for you (Claude Platform on AWS, and Anthropic-managed Claude models on Google Cloud), and Anthropic's documentation lists the US as their only storage location.

Four checks before client data goes in:

• Confirm that the model you want is offered on your EU endpoint before anyone builds around it.
• Regional endpoints can cost more than global ones, Anthropic notes, so price the EU route before you commit.
• Anthropic's covered models, Claude Fable 5 and 5.1 and Claude Mythos 5 and 5.1, keep prompts and outputs for 30 days on every platform that offers them. On Bedrock and Google Cloud that retained data stays with AWS or Google, so ask which region holds it.
• Claude's desktop app, Cowork included, runs on both clouds. By default it still sends crash reports and product analytics to Anthropic, with no prompt or response content, until an admin switches them off.

For the trade-offs, see Claude Cowork in Your Own Cloud, which lists what you give up, from Anthropic's own connectors to the Compliance API.

5. Microsoft 365 and Foundry

Microsoft offers Claude in two products, and they handle data differently.

In Microsoft 365 Copilot, Anthropic works as a Microsoft subprocessor. Microsoft's admin page, updated November 4, 2026, still lists Claude as outside the EU Data Boundary, Microsoft's commitment to store and process data for EU and EFTA customers inside those countries.

A day later, Microsoft announced that Claude in Copilot, Copilot Cowork included, will process data inside the boundary by the end of 2026 for organizations in the EU and EFTA. Firms already using it do nothing, because processing moves on its own once it is available. The setting stays off by default in the EU and EFTA until an admin turns it on.

The models Microsoft labels as having data retention, such as Claude Fable 5 and Claude Mythos 5, work differently: Anthropic stores most of their inputs and outputs for up to 30 days under its own terms. Microsoft has not said whether the move covers them, so keep them off for EU data until it does.

Microsoft Foundry is the other product. Claude there runs on a service Anthropic operates, outside your Azure tenant, and Anthropic's regional page lists Europe for Foundry as coming soon.

For the admin settings and what to teach staff, see Claude in Microsoft 365 Copilot: What Investment Firms Should Switch On, Off and Teach.

6. UK and Swiss Firms Need a Separate Check

The EU options draw their borders in different places. Check each one against where your clients and investors sit.

• The UK is outside Microsoft's EU Data Boundary, which covers the EU and the four EFTA countries. Claude in Copilot is off by default for UK tenants, and Microsoft's announcement does not mention them.
• Switzerland, an EFTA member, sits inside Microsoft's boundary.
• Google's EU endpoint leaves out both the UK and Switzerland, so ask whether your model runs in a UK or Swiss region instead.
• On Bedrock, read the destination Regions of the EU inference profile before UK or Swiss data goes through it.

UK firms answer to the UK GDPR, and Swiss firms to Swiss data protection law. Each has its own transfer rules, so ask counsel which ones apply to you.

7. What GDPR Asks For

GDPR does not require personal data to stay in the EU. Its transfer rules (Chapter V) let data leave the European Economic Area when the transfer has a legal basis.

The two common bases are an adequacy decision, where the European Commission finds that a country protects data well enough, and standard contractual clauses, contract terms approved by the Commission that bind the receiving company to EU-level protection.

So "keep it in the EU" is usually a promise your firm made: in a side letter with an investor, a client agreement, a data processing agreement or a regulator's expectation. Find that promise first, because it tells you which route you need.

Then look at what you plan to send. A model of a US target company carries little personal data. A family office's client files carry a lot.

8. What to Do Now

1. List every promise your firm made about where data lives: side letters, client agreements, data processing agreements and your own policies.
2. Sort your Claude work into tasks that touch covered data and tasks that do not.
3. Run covered data through Bedrock or Google Cloud on EU endpoints, and block the global ones by policy.
4. On Microsoft 365, keep Claude in Copilot off, or limited to named groups, for EU data until Microsoft confirms the date. Keep the models with data retention off.
5. Write a one-page rule that says which data goes through which route, and add each provider to your vendor file.
6. Check again every quarter. On November 6, Microsoft's admin page did not yet mention the announcement, so read both.

For how Claude handles confidential documents on each plan, see Is Claude Safe for Confidential Information?