Claude on AWS Bedrock for Australian data residency

The default deployment of Claude, via the Anthropic API at api.anthropic.com, routes your data through US-east infrastructure. Anthropic’s contracts are clear about not training on customer data, but the physical processing location is US.

For most Australian SMBs this is fine. For some, it isn’t:

• Government work with data-residency clauses
• Health records under state-specific Health Records Acts that mandate AU processing
• Legal matters where contractual provisions require AU-only handling
• Defence + national-security adjacent work
• Financial services with APRA standards on data sovereignty

For these cases, you want Claude running inside an Australian region. Two paths exist: AWS Bedrock + Google Vertex AI. Both host Claude in AU regions; both are first-party Anthropic deployments.

Setting up Claude on Bedrock

Prerequisites

• An AWS account with billing enabled
• IAM permission to access Bedrock + the Claude models
• AWS CLI installed + credentials configured

Enable model access

1. Sign in to AWS Console
2. Go to Bedrock → Model access
3. Request access to Anthropic’s Claude models (Opus, Sonnet, Haiku)
4. Approval is usually within 24 hours for the standard models

Set the region

For Australian data residency, choose ap-southeast-2 (Sydney). Bedrock now supports Claude in this region as of 2025.

export AWS_REGION=ap-southeast-2

Configure Claude Code

export CLAUDE_CODE_USE_BEDROCK=1
export AWS_REGION=ap-southeast-2
export ANTHROPIC_MODEL=anthropic.claude-sonnet-4-6-v1:0

Verify with:

claude --version
claude

The first session will use Bedrock + your AWS credentials. Token usage bills against your AWS account (not your Anthropic Console).

Pricing

AWS Bedrock pricing for Claude is approximately the same as the Anthropic API, listed in USD but billed via your AWS account (which converts at AWS’s FX rate, usually close to spot).

As of May 2026 (per 1M tokens, USD):

In AUD (assume 1.55 FX), Sonnet’s roughly $4.65 / $23.25 per million tokens, same as the Anthropic API.

Prompt caching is supported on Bedrock for recent Claude models, with comparable savings.

What you gain

• Data residency in AU. Inference runs in Sydney. Data doesn’t leave the region.
• Single billing. Inference bills through your existing AWS account.
• IAM-based auth. Use your existing AWS IAM policies + roles instead of Anthropic Console API keys.
• CloudWatch logging. Standard AWS logging + monitoring + audit trails apply.
• Compliance alignment. Easier to articulate to a compliance officer (“our AI inference runs in AWS Sydney under our existing AWS contract”).

What you trade off

• Feature lag. New Claude features sometimes land on the Anthropic API first, Bedrock second (days to weeks).
• Complexity. AWS IAM, Bedrock console, region selection, model access requests, more moving parts than pip install anthropic.
• Slightly higher latency. Bedrock adds an AWS-shaped routing layer; expect ~50-100ms extra per call vs direct Anthropic API from a Sydney-based client.
• Cost transparency. Bedrock’s billing detail in AWS Cost Explorer can lag, your Anthropic Console gives more real-time usage visibility.

When to use Bedrock vs Anthropic API

Vertex AI (Google Cloud) as alternative

GCP’s Vertex AI hosts Claude in australia-southeast1 (Sydney) and australia-southeast2 (Melbourne). Same trade-off shape: data residency in AU, slightly more complexity, similar pricing.

Choose by which cloud your business already runs on. Don’t introduce a second cloud just for Claude.

What we wouldn’t do

• Use Bedrock for general non-sensitive work because “more secure” is a vague benefit. The Anthropic API is already secure for most use cases. Reserve Bedrock for cases with actual contractual or regulatory residency requirements.
• Switch back and forth between Bedrock and Anthropic API in the same project. Pick one per project. The configuration drift across environments will bite.
• Assume Bedrock = compliance. Bedrock is a deployment substrate. Your compliance posture also depends on what data you feed in, what you log, how you handle the outputs, and what your contracts say. Bedrock is necessary but not sufficient.

What to do tomorrow

If you have a real residency requirement coming up:

1. Provision a Bedrock-enabled AWS sandbox account
2. Request Claude model access in ap-southeast-2 (24-48h approval)
3. Run your first session through CLAUDE_CODE_USE_BEDROCK=1
4. Confirm inference + logs land in your AU region
5. Document the configuration in your compliance + risk framework

If you’d like help architecting an AU-residency Claude deployment for a regulated business, book a free audit, we’ve shipped this for AU professional-services clients before.