OpenClaw: The Premium Experience for Anthropic subscribers

Changes in Anthropic’s Pricing Model for Claude Code Subscribers

Anthropic, the company behind the popular coding assistant Claude Code, has announced a significant change in its pricing model that will affect subscribers using third-party tools like OpenClaw. According to a recent customer email shared on Hacker News, starting from noon Pacific time on April 4, subscribers will no longer be able to use their Claude subscription limits for third-party harnesses, including OpenClaw. Instead, they will have to opt for a pay-as-you-go option, billed separately from their subscription.

The decision to implement this change comes as Anthropic aims to better manage its growth and ensure long-term sustainability. Boris Cherny, the head of Claude Code at Anthropic, explained that the company’s current subscriptions were not designed to accommodate the usage patterns of third-party tools. By introducing a separate billing system for extra usage, Anthropic hopes to serve its customers more effectively in the future.

While the policy change initially applies to OpenClaw, Anthropic has stated that it will soon be extended to all third-party harnesses. This move aligns with Anthropic’s strategy to streamline its offerings and focus on core services.

Interestingly, the announcement coincides with the news of OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger joining Anthropic’s competitor, OpenAI. Despite efforts from Steinberger and OpenClaw board member Dave Morin to negotiate with Anthropic, the increased pricing implementation could only be delayed by a week. Steinberger expressed disappointment in Anthropic’s actions, suggesting a correlation between the introduction of new pricing and the company’s shift towards closed-source practices.

Despite the controversy surrounding the pricing changes, Cherny emphasized that the Claude Code team remains supportive of open source initiatives. He highlighted his personal contributions to improving prompt cache efficiency for OpenClaw through pull requests. Cherny clarified that the decision was driven by engineering constraints and reiterated that full refunds are available for subscribers who may have misunderstood Anthropic’s stance on third-party tools.

In a related development, OpenAI recently discontinued its Sora app and video generation models to reallocate computing resources and refocus on serving software engineers and enterprises. This strategic shift reflects the growing demand for innovative products like Claude Code in the market.