Anthropic temporarily banned an account involving a developer tool briefly, which sparked confusion and online debate on Friday before being quickly reversed, according to posts on X.

Peter Steinberger, creator of the developer tool OpenClaw, said early Friday that it would become “harder in the future” to ensure OpenClaw continues to work with models from Anthropic.

His comment accompanied a screenshot indicating that his account had been suspended over what was described as “suspicious” activity.

The suspension, however, was short-lived. Steinberger later confirmed that his account had been reinstated just hours after his post began circulating widely on social media.

It remains unclear whether that action was what ultimately led to the account being restored.

However, the exchange as a whole proved revealing in several respects.

The suspension came shortly after reports that subscriptions to Claude would no longer include access through “third-party harnesses,” including OpenClaw, according to Anthropic.

Under the updated policy, OpenClaw users are now required to pay separately for usage, with charges applied on a consumption basis through Claude’s API. The change effectively shifts such activity out of standard subscription access.

Anthropic, which also offers its own agent product, Cowork, has been described by OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger as introducing a “claw tax” on third-party tool usage.

Steinberger said he was following the updated rules and complying with the new usage requirements.