Anthropic has restricted the operation of OpenClaw in Claude amid allegations of function copying - ForkLog: cryptocurrencies, AI, singularity, the future

# Anthropic limits OpenClaw’s operation in Claude amid allegations of copying functionality

Anthropic told users that they will no longer be able to apply Claude subscription limits to third-party interfaces such as OpenClaw. Using this feature will require additional payment.

Starting tomorrow at 12pm PT, Claude subscriptions will no longer cover usage on third-party tools like OpenClaw.

You can still use these tools with your Claude login via extra usage bundles (now available at a discount), or with a Claude API key.

— Boris Cherny (@bcherny) April 3, 2026

“Our subscriptions were not designed with the specifics of using third-party tools in mind. Compute power is a resource that we manage carefully, and we prioritize our customers using our products and API,” commented Boris Cherny, head of Claude Code.

Developers’ reaction and technical limitations

OpenClaw’s creator, Peter Steinberger, said that together with a member of the project’s board of directors, Dave Morin, he tried to persuade Anthropic’s leadership. However, all they managed to do was delay the introduction of the new rules by one week.

woke up and my mentions are full of these

Both me and @davemorin tried to talk sense into Anthropic, best we managed was delaying this for a week.

Funny how timings match up, first they copy some popular features into their closed harness, then they lock out open source. https://t.co/Mgmv6YmW2B

— Peter Steinberger 🦞 (@steipete) April 3, 2026

“It’s funny how the timelines match up: first they copy some popular features into their closed platform, and then they cut off access to the open-source code,” the entrepreneur emphasized.

In response, Cherny said the startup’s team supports open-source, and that the decision was made due to technical constraints.

“Our systems are carefully optimized for one specific type of load. We continue optimizing to serve as many users as possible with the most intelligent models,” he noted.

The developer also reminded that customers who disagree with the changes can cancel their subscription and receive a full refund.

Recall that in April, an AI startup accidentally deleted thousands of repositories on GitHub in an attempt to remove leaked Claude Code source code from the network.