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Tell HN: Anthropic no longer allowing Claude Code subscriptions to use OpenClaw

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Re: Tell HN: Anthropic no longer allowing Claude Code subscriptions to use OpenClaw

#681

Post by NeutralCrane »

dimmke wrote: post #310
coldtea wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They sell metered usage while having the implied expectation that most wont use it fully. Power users and users of stuff like OpenClaw don't match that idea. So they further restricted the metered caps, which were only offered to NOT be reached by that many. Simple as that.

>Power users and users of stuff like OpenClaw don't match that idea. Then they should figure out how to structure an offering that accommodates this type of usage not just blanket ban it

Isn’t that just usage based charges?

Re: Tell HN: Anthropic no longer allowing Claude Code subscriptions to use OpenClaw

#683

Post by nickthegreek »

Aperocky wrote: post #307
userbinator wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and they’ve made it clear that building products around claude -p is disallowed Imagine not being able to connect services together or compose building-blocks to do what you want. This is absolute insanity that runs counter to decades of computing progress and interoperability (including Unix philosophy); and I'm saying this as someone who doesn't even care for using AI.

it's trivial to use tmux. But it does feels like openclaw is used (and increasingly developed) by people who never heard of it.

openclaw even ships with a built in tmux skill

Re: Tell HN: Anthropic no longer allowing Claude Code subscriptions to use OpenClaw

#684

Post by chrismustcode »

xtracto wrote: post #268
minimaxir wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Codex just ended their double-usage offer and OpenAI just had an exec shakeup, so it'll be interesting to see how Codex reacts, or if people have usage issues with Codex.

So the VC gravy is drying. We should see the enshitification of LLM providers in the rest of 2026 and 2027. The bubble has to burst at some point.

5 days ago OpenAI raised $122b and 26' Q1 recorded the largest amount of startup funding in a Q ever.

I wouldn't say it's drying.

https://x.com/OpenAI/status/2039085161971896807

https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/01/startup-funding-shatters-a...

Re: Tell HN: Anthropic no longer allowing Claude Code subscriptions to use OpenClaw

#685

Post by nickthegreek »

happyopossum wrote: post #243
andai wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are they doing that? Opus is the only good way to run Claw. Do they regret making it cheaper or what? Also what's the point of Claude -p if not integration with 3rd party code? (They have a whole agents SDK which does the same thing.. but I think that one requires per token pricing.) I guess they regret supporting subscription auth on the -p flag

> Opus is the only good way to run Claw that's a ridiculous position to take - gemini and others work just great with claw...

5.4 and minimax 2.7 work nicely as well.

Re: Tell HN: Anthropic no longer allowing Claude Code subscriptions to use OpenClaw

#686

Post by unop »

hooch wrote: post #221
password4321 wrote: post #61

GitHub Copilot supports Anthropic models with any client but they have a monthly usage cap after which it is pay-per-prompt. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46936105 Billing can be bypassed using a combo of subagents with an agent definition > "Even without hacks, Copilot is still a cheap way to use Claude models" 20260116 https://github.blog/changelog/2026-01-16-github-copilot-now-... https://github.com/feature…

Last time I looked Copilot's context window for Anthropic models was something like 150,000 tokens only.

Both Sonnet and Opus 4.6 under GHCP support a 1M context window.

Re: Tell HN: Anthropic no longer allowing Claude Code subscriptions to use OpenClaw

#687

Post by nickthegreek »

topherhunt wrote: post #564
aimadetools wrote: post #558

[flagged]

I don't get it - in what way is this bait-and-switch? Anthropic's terms have made it amply clear that your claude subscription can only be used with Anthropic-provided tools, not with 3rd-party harnesses. I imagine anyone who uses OpenClaw is AI-savvy enough to be aware of that, and happily flouted those terms anyway. If anything Anthropic seems overly accommodating here by giving all flouters a month of free credit,…

There ToS didn’t use to say that. It does now, that is the bait and switch. FYI, openai says their sub IS a giant bucket of tokens you can use however you want.

Re: Tell HN: Anthropic no longer allowing Claude Code subscriptions to use OpenClaw

#688

Post by coldtea »

aleph_minus_one wrote: post #606
satvikpendem wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why "should" they? There's no reason they would especially when their competitor now owns OpenClaw.

> Why "should" they? Because it is clear that there is a market demand for it.

There is also a clear market demand for $10 bills sold for $5, but I don't see you tapping into that opportunity!

Re: Tell HN: Anthropic no longer allowing Claude Code subscriptions to use OpenClaw

#689

Post by HarHarVeryFunny »

goosejuice wrote: post #160
jesse_dot_id wrote: post #73

There seem to be a ton of people who don't understand how subscription services work. Every single one of them oversells their capacity. The power users that use the services a lot are subsidized by those who don't use it as much, which tends to be the vast majority of the user base. OpenClaw is an autonomous power user. The growing adoption of this walking attack surface was either going to A) cause the cost of Clau…

What you're saying is conceptually true for subscription services in general, but thats not why they are making this change. There's a 5 hour limit and a weekly limit. Those are hard token limits. Everyone on a plan pays for the max set of tokens in that plan. The limits manage capacity. The solution to that isn't a change of ToS, it's adjusting the limits. In other words this is about Anthropic subsidizing their own…

There are multiple reasons why this makes sense for Anthropic

- The intention of subscriptions, as anywhere, is a combination of trying to promote brand loyalty, and the gym membership model of getting people to pay for oversubscribed resources that many will never use. As the parent noted, people maxxing out their allowed usage, for whatever reason, are not the most profitable customers, and in this case probably not profitable at all

- OpenClaw is now owned by a competitor, OpenAI, and Anthropic are trying to compete in this space

https://www.semafor.com/article/04/03/2026/anthropic-eyes-it...

- Anthropic are capacity constrained, having sensibly chosen to err on the side of safety (not going bankrupt), and are now trying to do the best they can to manage that.

Presumably they might be acting differently if they had capacity to spare, but even then helping a competitor to build market share in a potentially lucrative segment doesn't make strategic sense.

I do wonder about the wisdom of Anthropic promoting usage-maxxing development patterns such as running a dozen agents in parallel ... maybe not the wisest thing to do when capacity constrained! It would make more sense to promote usage at night with low priority "batch jobs" rather than encourage people to increase usage during periods of maximum demand.

Re: Tell HN: Anthropic no longer allowing Claude Code subscriptions to use OpenClaw

#690

Post by saintfire »

PunchyHamster wrote: post #576
jesse_dot_id wrote: post #73

There seem to be a ton of people who don't understand how subscription services work. Every single one of them oversells their capacity. The power users that use the services a lot are subsidized by those who don't use it as much, which tends to be the vast majority of the user base. OpenClaw is an autonomous power user. The growing adoption of this walking attack surface was either going to A) cause the cost of Clau…

No, people want transparency. If it was "x tokens per time interval, then you pay extra", the problem wouldn't exist.

The API offers that. Pay X per month, get Y tokens. Then you can look at all the graphs of money being deleted by OpenClaw, for transparency.

People want a free lunch. If the API was cheaper than the subscription then everyone would use the API. Instead people flock to an, apparently, unsustainable pice at a fixed monthly rate; presumably subsidized by others who don't use their full capacity every month.

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