Using OpenClaw on Claude? Anthropic is about to start charging you extra

Anthropic has announced that its Claude subscription will no longer support using third-party AI tools like OpenClaw. The company made the announcement in a social media post on Saturday and gave them less than a day until the new structure comes into place.

Anthropic’s Head of Claude Code, Boris Cherny, while announcing the changes in a post on X (formerly Twitter), noted that users who want to use Claude with OpenClaw will have to take a separate pay-as-you-go option, which will be separate from their regular Claude subscription.

“We’ve been working hard to meet the increase in demand for Claude, and our subscriptions weren’t built for the usage patterns of these third-party tools. Capacity is a resource we manage thoughtfully, and we are prioritizing our customers using our products and API.” Cherny wrote on X.

The new changes will come into effect from 12PM Pacific Time (PT) on April 4, and Anthropic is offering a ‘one-time credit equal to your monthly plan cost’ to its Claude subscribers.

“We want to be intentional in managing our growth to continue to serve our customers sustainably long-term. This change is a step toward that.” Cherny added.

OpenClaw creator responds to Anthropic’s changes:

OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger responded to the changes in a separate post on X, stating that he and OpenClaw board member Dave Morin tried to talk Anthropic out of the new change, but all they could do was delay the changes for a week.

“Woke up and my mentions are full of this. Both me and @davemorin tried to talk sense into Anthropic, best we managed was delaying this for a week. Funny how timings match up, first they copy some popular features into their closed harness, then they lock out open source.” wrote Steinberger.

Notably, OpenClaw shot to fame earlier this year as users discovered that the open-source AI agent platform can be used to effectively manage their emails, calendar, and other tasks using AI. Unlike a traditional chatbot that requires users to open a separate app to work, OpenClaw can interact with the OpenClaw agent on platforms that they already use, like WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, and iMessage.

Since then, Steinberger has been hired by OpenAI to “drive the next generation of personal agents”. Meanwhile, seeing the popularity of OpenClaw, Anthropic has also been working on its own competing agentic AI features like Claude Cowork, Dispatch, and Channels to make users choose its own AI.

For instance, Dispatch allows users to assign a task to Claude from their phone and have Claude execute it on their computer in the background. Meanwhile, the Channels feature allows Anthropic users to message the Claude Code agent via Telegram and Discord.