Anthropic announced that Claude users will have to pay more to utilize third-party tools such as OpenClaw, starting April 4 at 12 p.m. PT. The announcement was communicated to Claude subscription holders via email and posted on Hacker News.
As of the specified date, users will no longer be able to apply their Claude subscription limits to third-party tools. While these tools can still be accessed through Claude accounts, they will incur additional charges under a pay-as-you-go system, separate from existing subscriptions.
Boris Cherny, Head of Claude Code, confirmed the announcement on X, mentioning that users can employ an API key for these tools. Cherny explained that the changes stem from increased demand for Claude, which the existing subscription model was not designed to accommodate. He stated, “Capacity is a resource we manage thoughtfully and we are prioritizing our customers using our products and API.”
Starting tomorrow at 12pm PT, Claude subscriptions will no longer cover usage on third-party tools like OpenClaw.
You can still use these tools with your Claude login via extra usage bundles (now available at a discount), or with a Claude API key.
— Boris Cherny (@bcherny) April 3, 2026
Earlier this year, Peter Steinberger, the developer of OpenClaw, joined OpenAI, after the tool gained significant traction. Following the announcement, Steinberger expressed his concerns on X, noting attempts to persuade Anthropic to reverse the decision. He indicated that he and OpenClaw board member Dave Morin had been “trying to talk sense into Anthropic,” but only managed to delay the change by a week.
Steinberger pointed out the timing of Anthropic’s shift, suggesting a correlation between their recent feature updates and the popularity of OpenClaw, stating, “Funny how timings match up, first they copy some popular features into their closed harness, then they lock out open source.”
woke up and my mentions are full of these
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. https://t.co/Mgmv6YmW2B
— Peter Steinberger 🦞 (@steipete) April 3, 2026
In response to concerns about open source, Cherny reiterated the company’s appreciation for it but emphasized the need to optimize Claude for specific workloads. He acknowledged that the updates are primarily about addressing engineering constraints.
