Claude Code subscribers will soon face higher costs when using Anthropic’s coding assistant with third-party tools such as OpenClaw.

In an email to customers shared on Hacker News, Anthropic said that effective noon Pacific time on April 4, subscribers will no longer be able to apply their existing Claude subscription limits to third-party harnesses, including OpenClaw.

The company stated that usage through such external tools will instead be charged under a separate pay-as-you-go model, billed independently from standard subscription plans, according to TechCrunch.

“Starting at noon Pacific on April 4, subscribers will no longer be able to use your Claude subscription limits for third-party harnesses including OpenClaw,” it said.

Instead, customers will be required to cover additional usage costs under a separate pay-as-you-go plan that will be billed independently of their existing subscription.

Anthropic said that although the change takes effect with OpenClaw first, the policy will apply to all third-party harnesses and will be extended to additional tools in the near future.

Anthropic’s head of Claude Code, Boris Cherny, wrote on X that the company’s subscription plans “weren’t built for the usage patterns of these third-party tools.”

He added that Anthropic is seeking to be more deliberate in managing its growth in order to serve customers sustainably over the long term.

The announcement follows comments by OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger, who recently said he is joining Anthropic rival OpenAI.

He added that OpenClaw will continue as an open-source project with backing from OpenAI.

Steinberger also wrote that he and OpenClaw board member Dave Morin “tried to talk sense into Anthropic,” but were only able to postpone the pricing changes by one week.

“Funny how timings match up, first they copy some popular features into their closed harness, then they lock out open source,” Steinberger said.