Artificial intelligence company Anthropic is facing a wave of controversy after announcing a new policy related to the use of third-party tools, including the OpenClaw open source platform.
According to the notice sent to users, Claude Code subscribers will no longer be able to use their limited subscription packages to access third-party tools. Instead, all overdue usage needs will have to be paid separately according to the "pay at usage level" model.
This policy has been applied immediately to OpenClaw and is expected to expand to many other platforms in the near future.
Reason from Anthropic side
Anthropic representatives said this decision stemmed from resource pressure as demand for Claude increased sharply.
Mr. Boris Cherny – head of Claude Code, said that the current registration packages are not designed to serve the model of third-party tools.
Capacity is a resource that needs to be carefully managed. We prioritize customers who directly use our products and APIs," Mr. Cherny shared.
According to him, policy adjustments are aimed at helping the company control growth, ensuring stable operation in the long term.
Reaction from OpenClaw
Anthropic's move faced a strong reaction from OpenClaw, an open source platform that is developing rapidly in the AI community.
Peter Steinberger, founder of OpenClaw, said that he and his colleagues tried to negotiate with Anthropic to delay the implementation of the policy, but only achieved results in a short time.
Mr. Peter Steinberger said: "It is ironic that they copy some popular features into their systems, and then restrict access from open source platforms.
This statement reflects growing concerns in the development community about the possibility that large AI companies may narrow the space for open projects.
Increasingly fierce competition in the AI field
The controversy takes place in the context of the rapid development of large-language modeling (LLM) AI platforms, especially programming and automation support tools.
OpenClaw emerged as a framework that allows developers to build and coordinate AI agents in complex processes.
The popularity of this platform is considered one of the reasons why Anthropic had to adjust its strategy.
Along with that, Anthropic is also continuously upgrading Claude with new features, including the ability to perform tasks directly on the user's computer such as searching and sending files.
The competitive move became even clearer when the founder of OpenClaw recently joined OpenAI, another major competitor in the industry.
Despite facing criticism, Anthropic affirmed that it still supports open source. Mr. Cherny said that the company's team is still actively contributing to improving OpenClaw, including optimizing system performance.
However, he also emphasized that the current problem mainly stems from technical limitations and resource management needs.
Currently, Anthropic said it will still refund fully to users affected by this change.
