Sweden blocks ChatGPT and Claude on government computers

Sweden blocks ChatGPT and Claude on official computers at the Government Offices from Monday, 26 October. Staff are being pointed to Microsoft Copilot instead.

The Swedish Government Office, known as Regeringskansliet, put the block in place. It covers direct access to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude on work machines. It is not a nationwide ban.

Why Sweden blocks ChatGPT and Claude

The concern is data. Officials worry that civil servants using outside AI services without a formal data-processing agreement could expose sensitive information. Without such an agreement, the government cannot control what happens to the data typed in.

The report also cites inappropriate AI use at several agencies. Examples include sensitive information entered into services and unverified AI output used in official work. Digitalisation official Mikael Wettercrantz is quoted in the coverage.

Some staff can still reach ChatGPT and Claude through an internal AI platform built by the Government Office. That detail matters. The state is not rejecting the technology. It is insisting that access runs through systems it controls.

This is not Sweden’s first step. DeepSeek was restricted earlier. The Tax Agency and other agencies have taken similar steps.

The decision does not label these tools unsafe in every case. It reflects a procurement and governance question. Who holds the data, who is liable, and who can audit the system?

Other governments face the same choice. Employees adopt chatbots faster than rules are written. Banning them rarely works alone. Clear agreements, approved tools and training do more. We examined related risks in our report on AI agents and bank accounts.

For ordinary users the lesson is simple. Do not paste confidential material into a chatbot unless you know where it goes. Check your employer’s policy first.

Disclosure: Claude, one of the tools named here, is made by Anthropic, whose technology this site’s newsroom also uses.

Bytes Europe has the original report.

Fact basis: Bytes Europe (26 October 2026), citing the Swedish Government Office; Swedish outlets including SVT and Breakit reported the same decision.