Anthropic has announced that Claude Code subscribers can no longer use their standard subscription limits for third-party harnesses, including OpenClaw. Starting April 4, 2026, users wishing to utilize OpenClaw must pay additional fees through a pay-as-you-go option billed separately from their monthly subscription.
Boris Cherny, head of Claude Code, stated that the usage patterns of third-party tools were not what the subscriptions were built for. This move is intended to manage growth sustainably and address engineering constraints. Anthropic noted that this policy applies to all third-party harnesses and will be rolled out further shortly.
The decision drew criticism from OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger, who recently joined OpenAI. Steinberger suggested that Anthropic is locking out open source after integrating popular features into their own closed ecosystem. Conversely, the Claude Code team insists they remain fans of open source, citing recent pull requests to improve prompt cache efficiency for OpenClaw.
