Anthropic is no longer offering free third-party apps that use Claude AI. Boris Cherny, creator of Anthropic and head of Claude Code, posted on X that Claude’s subscription will no longer cover free use of AI agents in third-party tools such as OpenClaw. Cherny said that as of 3pm ET on April 4th, people who use Claude through third-party apps and software will need to use additional usage bundles or Claude API keys.
Most of Claude’s workload likely comes from simple user questions, but some use AI chatbots through OpenClaw, a free, open-source AI assistant from the same developer as Moltbook. Unlike more popular AI solutions, OpenClaw is designed to automate personal workflows like clearing your inbox, sending emails, and organizing your calendar, but it relies on external large-scale language models such as Claude, ChatGPT, and Google Gemini.
Cherny replied to X users that this change is about engineering constraints and optimizations. “We’ve been working hard to keep up with the increased demand for Claude, and our subscriptions weren’t built for the usage patterns of these third-party tools,” Charney explained on X. “Capacity is a resource that we carefully manage, and we prioritize customers who use our products and APIs.”
If OpenClaw users still want to use Anthropic as their LLM, they will need to purchase the currently discounted usage bundle or switch to another AI integration such as xAI, Perplexity, or even DeepSeek. Of course, Anthropic has its own alternative that tackles similar tasks to OpenClaw, called Claude Cowork.
