Anthropic has announced a pricing shift that could impact developers using its coding assistant. Starting April 4, subscribers of Claude Code will face additional charges for using third-party tools like OpenClaw.
Anthropic confirmed that from noon Pacific time on April 4, Claude Code subscribers can no longer use their subscription limits for third-party harnesses.
Instead, usage of tools like OpenClaw will now fall under a separate “pay-as-you-go” model, billed independently from the standard subscription.
The company noted that while the change begins with OpenClaw, it will soon extend to all third-party integrations.
Why Anthropic is making this move
According to Boris Cherny, the decision stems from technical and operational challenges.
He explained that existing subscription plans “weren’t built for the usage patterns of these third-party tools.” The company is now aiming to manage growth more sustainably and ensure long-term service reliability.
Cherny emphasized that the move is driven by engineering constraints rather than a shift away from open-source support.
OpenClaw creator responds
The decision has drawn criticism from Peter Steinberger, who recently joined OpenAI.
Steinberger revealed that he, along with OpenClaw board member Dave Morin, had attempted to persuade Anthropic to reconsider the pricing changes but were only able to delay them briefly.
In a pointed remark, he accused the company of limiting open-source access after introducing similar features into its own ecosystem.
Despite the backlash, Cherny maintained that Anthropic remains supportive of open-source initiatives.
He noted that team members actively contribute to improving tools like OpenClaw, including efforts to enhance prompt cache efficiency.
Anthropic also stated that it is offering full refunds to users who may not have understood the limitations of third-party tool support under existing subscriptions.
The announcement comes amid intensifying competition in the AI developer tools space.
Recently, OpenAI reportedly shut down its Sora app and certain video generation models to reallocate computing resources and focus more on developers and enterprise users.
This shift highlights the growing demand for efficient, scalable AI coding tools like Claude Code.
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