Anthropic says Claude Code subscribers will need to pay extra for OpenClaw usage

Anthropic said Claude Code subscriptions will no longer cover usage of third-party harnesses like OpenClaw starting at noon Pacific on April 4, 2026.

The company said affected usage must be paid via a separate pay-as-you-go billing option and that the policy will expand to more third-party harnesses.

Anthropic’s Claude Code head Boris Cherny cited engineering and usage-pattern constraints and the company is offering full refunds to subscribers.

OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger said he is joining OpenAI and that OpenClaw will continue as an open source project with OpenAI support.