Anthropic Restricts OpenClaw Usage in Claude Amidst Feature Copying Allegations

Anthropic restricts Claude subscription limits for third-party tools like OpenClaw.

Anthropic has informed users that they will no longer be able to apply Claude subscription limits to third-party interfaces like OpenClaw. Additional payment will be required for using this feature.

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

“Our subscriptions were not designed with third-party tool usage in mind. Computational resources are a carefully managed asset, and we prioritize our clients using our products and API,” commented Claude Code’s head, Boris Cherny.

Developers’ Reaction and Technical Constraints

OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger reported that he, along with project board member Dave Morin, attempted to persuade Anthropic’s management. However, they only managed to delay the implementation of the new rules by one week.

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

“Funny how timings match up: first they copy some popular features into their closed platform, then they lock out open source,” the entrepreneur emphasized.

In response, Cherny stated that the startup team supports open source, and the decision was made due to technical constraints.

“Our systems are finely tuned for one specific type of load. We continue to optimize to serve as many users as possible with the most intelligent models,” he noted.

The developer reminded that clients dissatisfied with the changes can cancel their subscription and receive a full refund.

Back in April, the AI startup accidentally deleted thousands of repositories on GitHub in attempts to remove leaked Claude Code source code from the web.