Claude subscribers will have to pay extra to use OpenClaw

Claude users will now have to pay more to use third-party tools like viral AI assistant OpenClaw, Anthropic announced.

The news came via email from Anthropic to Claude’s subscribers. It was posted on Hacker News and states that starting April 4 at 12 p.m. PT, subscribers “will no longer be able to use your Claude subscription limits for third-party harnesses.” [tools] including OpenClaw. You can still use them with your Claude account, but they will require additional usage, a pay-as-you-go option billed separately from your subscription.

The head of Claude Code, Boris Cherny, said the same thing on Friday on X, and mentioned that these tools can also be used with an API key. He explained the change: “We have worked hard to meet the increase in demand for Claude, and our subscriptions were not designed for the usage patterns of these third-party tools. Capacity is a resource we manage thoughtfully and we prioritize our customers using our products and API.”

In February, OpenClaw developer Peter Steinberger joined OpenAI after the tool became widely known online. On Friday, Steinberger posted on

He continued: “It’s funny how the timings match, first they copy some popular features into their closed harness, then they lock open source.”

Cherny responded to this (but not directly to Steinberger), stating that Claude’s team are “big fans of open source” and that it’s more about engineering constraints. “Our systems are highly optimized for one type of workload, and to serve as many people as possible with the smartest models, we continue to optimize them,” he said.

Cherny also added, however, that if users wish to cancel their subscriptions, Anthropic provides a full refund.

Disclosure: Ziff Davis, the parent company of Mashable, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April 2025, alleging that it had violated Ziff Davis’ copyrights in the training and operation of its AI systems.