Anthropic's Method to Losing Goodwill in a Few Easy Steps • Hacker News Board

Re: Anthropic's Method to Losing Goodwill in a Few Easy Steps

#71

Post by JumpCrisscross » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 2:37 PM UTC

internet2000 wrote: post #42

They're subsidizing their tokens as long as you use their software. That's a fair exchange, I never understood why people took issue with it. If you don't want to get locked in to Claude Code, you can pay more. Just like you can pay more for an unlocked non-carrier subsidized phone. (Which I personally do.)

If that were the only issue, I’d say Anthropic were fine.

Dario took the tremendous goodwill his row with Hegseth gave him and blew it. The major problems are Anthropic’s back-end instability and front-end kludginess (Electron!) revealing the gap between Anthropic’s capability and marketing, and Dario bizarrely copying Altman’s 2023 fire-and-brimstone playbook that had already massively backfired.

Re: Anthropic's Method to Losing Goodwill in a Few Easy Steps

#72

Post by bakies » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 2:37 PM UTC

supermatt wrote: post #28

> Your Claude subscription—which is a cheaper version of the Anthropic API—is restricted to use with the Claude Code CLI/Desktop, Claude CoWork, or @Claude in Slack. Thats not true at all. You can use the Agent SDK [1], which uses your subscription [2]. I use it via ACP [3] with custom system prompts and tooling. I have found it very powerful and flexible. It has its own agent loop, of course, so maybe thats the limi…

The fun part is they planned for this to change to API pricing. When they announced that I started shifting off claude code immediately so I could keep my custom tooling. Damage is done. I won't build up around claude code or agent sdk any longer because I expect this to change. The announcement says they're "pausing" the change so expect this and avoid the lock-in!

linked by another comment: https://support.claude.com/en/articles/15036540-use-the-clau...

Re: Anthropic's Method to Losing Goodwill in a Few Easy Steps

#73

Post by jack_pp » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 2:37 PM UTC

cyberax wrote: post #67

internet2000 wrote: post #42

They're subsidizing their tokens as long as you use their software. That's a fair exchange, I never understood why people took issue with it. If you don't want to get locked in to Claude Code, you can pay more. Just like you can pay more for an unlocked non-carrier subsidized phone. (Which I personally do.)

This method of bundling should be illegal in general, as it stiffles competition.

How does it stifle competition / innovation? You can use other harnesses, pay API for anthropic models or cheap chinese models.

You're just upset that you don't get to use their VC money the way you want to use it lol. It either is a good deal or it isn't, if it is just say, thanks free VC money, if it isn't say fuck you.

Re: Anthropic's Method to Losing Goodwill in a Few Easy Steps

#74

Post by datakan » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 2:37 PM UTC

iterateoften wrote: post #9

Anthropic takes every chance they make not only to behave suspicious and anti-consumer but also announce that they are acting in ways that hurt you while telling you it’s a feature. Fable returning wrong answers if it suspects the topic is sensative is the ultimate icing on the huge cake of lies and gaslighting they’ve been baking the past 6 months.

I haven't seen leadership this bad since the late 90's. I'm pretty sure at this point that Claude could run the company better than Dario.

Re: Anthropic's Method to Losing Goodwill in a Few Easy Steps

#75

Post by dukky » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 2:39 PM UTC

internet2000 wrote: post #42

They're subsidizing their tokens as long as you use their software. That's a fair exchange, I never understood why people took issue with it. If you don't want to get locked in to Claude Code, you can pay more. Just like you can pay more for an unlocked non-carrier subsidized phone. (Which I personally do.)

Part of the point is that they've added all sorts of caveats - `claude -p` used to be "using their software", but isn't anymore, even though it's just invoking the same harness non-interactively

Re: Anthropic's Method to Losing Goodwill in a Few Easy Steps

#76

Post by bakies » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 2:39 PM UTC

tekacs wrote: post #7

It worth noting that – just to add to the confusion – they apparently cancelled the June 15th change just before it was due to go live: https://support.claude.com/en/articles/15036540-use-the-clau... https://the-decoder.com/anthropic-backs-off-unpopular-billin... So... maybe we can still use third party harnesses with Claude Code subscriptions... for now? Until they change their mind again?

It says "Pausing." I've already pivoted to no longer use claude -p in my custom tooling and pipelines built around claude code in response to the original announcement. Doesn't look like I should waste my time at this point.

Re: Anthropic's Method to Losing Goodwill in a Few Easy Steps

#77

Post by datakan » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 2:39 PM UTC

NetOpWibby wrote: post #53

hnlmorg wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Open models like GLM 5.2 are getting good enough to handle 90% of tasks, and will eat most of their usage unless they start serving it at cost. Most people either don’t have the money to buy hardware to run open models and/or don’t have the utilisation to make renting cost effective.

This is where I’m at. While I’d LOVE to have a powerful near-frontier model at home, I don’t have the extra funds necessary to purchase a tricked-out Mac Studio…and if I did, I’d pay off debts.

Probably wouldn't matter if you had the funds either since MacStudios are 3-4 months out for purchase.

Re: Anthropic's Method to Losing Goodwill in a Few Easy Steps

#78

Post by mrngld » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 2:40 PM UTC

m_ke wrote: post #8

It's looking like Anthropic is realizing that they're about to get squeezed so they need to juice revenue for their IPO before it becomes obvious to everyone else. Open models like GLM 5.2 are getting good enough to handle 90% of tasks, and will eat most of their usage unless they start serving it at cost. And on the 1% work they fearmongered their way into falling under government control, which will limit how much…

Cost per task, GLM (due to its poor token efficiency) still lags. GPT 5.5 on low seems to wipe the floor with it. All the Chinese models still like to use tons of tokens. It shows up in time per task as well.

But, and this is the problem corporations face, that's the truth TODAY. They need to make decisions for the next quarter at minimum, for a year ideally. I don't envy IT leadership in this environment, there's no right answer along the lines of "no one ever got fired for buying IBM". Any choice today may potentially make you look silly in 90 days.

Re: Anthropic's Method to Losing Goodwill in a Few Easy Steps

#79

Post by Forgeties79 » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 2:40 PM UTC

internet2000 wrote: post #42

They're subsidizing their tokens as long as you use their software. That's a fair exchange, I never understood why people took issue with it. If you don't want to get locked in to Claude Code, you can pay more. Just like you can pay more for an unlocked non-carrier subsidized phone. (Which I personally do.)

You shouldn't have to pay your carrier to unlock your phone and in many countries it's actually illegal.

>if you don't want to get locked in to Claude Code

All of these companies are built around eventually locking you in then selling to some other company. "Just pay more" is not a real solution. Once the competition dies down and there are only a handful of companies (if we are even lucky enough for that) with viable LLM products, your ability to jump ship is going to diminish. It always does. There is no way they aren't working on better lock in tactics.

Re: Anthropic's Method to Losing Goodwill in a Few Easy Steps

#80

Post by xyzsparetimexyz » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 2:41 PM UTC

CodingJeebus wrote: post #40

exitb wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm happy using Codex for alternative harnesses and non-interactive usage, but it does make me wonder when OpenAI will start to squeeze their customers in the same way.

Agreed, these types of posts often feel like they're missing the forest for the trees. Sure, migrate away from Claude and maybe that will provide some runway, but all of these companies are built on the same economic fundamentals that do not scale. We are currently in the "$7/mo Netflix with all the good movies" era of AI that will leave and never return.

Its more like Netflix being the only service with movies available at 8k, some other options having movies at 4k and then a free option where they're only at 1080p.