Anthropic cuts OpenClaw access from Claude subscriptions, offers credits to ease transition

OpenClaw co-creator says he managed to delay the move by a week; subscribers raise cost and competition concerns.

Anthropic has blocked paid Claude subscribers from using the widely used open-source AI agent OpenClaw under their existing subscription plans, a move that took effect April 4 and has drawn pushback from subscribers who question both the cost implications and the company's stated rationale.

In an email to subscribers reviewed by InfoWorld, Anthropic said access to third-party tools through subscription tokens was being discontinued. "Starting April 4, third-party harnesses like OpenClaw connected to your Claude account will draw from extra usage instead of from your subscription," the company said. Users accessing Claude through the API are unaffected by the change.

To ease the transition, Anthropic offered each subscriber a one-time credit equal to their monthly subscription price, redeemable by April 17 and valid for 90 days across Claude Code, Claude Cowork, chat, or connected third-party tools. The company also introduced pre-purchase extra usage bundles at discounts of up to 30% for subscribers who want to continue running OpenClaw with Claude as the underlying model.