Anthropic just changed Claude billing for OpenClaw users with less than 24 hours notice on a Friday night. Check your auto-refill settings.

Posted by DigitalSignage2024@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 98 comments

If anyone on your team uses Claude with OpenClaw or other third-party tools, heads up. Anthropic announced Friday evening that subscriptions no longer cover usage through third-party tools. Starting Saturday at noon PT, all that usage moves to "Extra Usage" which is pay-as-you-go, billed separately from your subscription.

Their compensation: a one-time $100 credit and 30% off pre-purchased usage bundles. So they're giving you a coupon to soften the transition into a billing model you didn't sign up for. The credit expires April 17. After that you're paying full per-token rates.

If you have auto-refill turned on (which is the default for a lot of accounts) and someone on your team is running agents through OpenClaw, you could be looking at surprise charges by Monday morning. One OpenClaw agent running continuously can burn through that $100 credit in hours depending on the workload.

The Friday night announcement with less than 24 hours before enforcement is the part that should bother you regardless of whether you use this specific tool. Quiet billing changes, short notice, default settings that opt you into spending more. We've seen this playbook before from other vendors. It doesn't get less annoying when an AI company does it.

Worth checking your Anthropic account settings this weekend if anyone in your org has a subscription.

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_araqiel@reddit

I’d question the sanity anyone here running OpenClaw outside of maybe a test environment.

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CtrlAltDelve@reddit

I really think there are such better options if you truly want to experiment with these agentic tools in a safer way.

For instance, there is really nothing that OpenClaw can do that you can't do better, safer, with more guardrails and better control using OpenCode.

I'm so nervous about how OpenClaw has emboldened people to just "go find Skill XYZ and then do the thing, wow its magic". I shudder to think what's happening in the background that they don't understand.

For all my stuff, I run everything through OpenCode. I have strict permissions, sandboxing, and completely personally generated skill files that only do what I want them to do. It's more work to technically understand but I'm never worried about prompt injection or hidden malware inside of skills.

Despite all of that, I could never ever imagine running even my own OpenCode setup directly on company property/infrastructure. That feels like the height of irresponsible.

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headinthesky@reddit

Have you gotten into any issues with using Claude with OC? I'm guessing you're using a plug-in

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CtrlAltDelve@reddit

No issues, even though the 12 p.m. deadline that they said has passed. But then again I'm also finding myself using Claude less and less. Codex just is starting to feel way better.

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headinthesky@reddit

Ah interesting. I'll have to give it a go. Opus 4.6 has been great for me

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-GenlyAI-@reddit

I have similar guardrails with openclaw. It does have full access to my system, which is why I am using it, but it's on a designated system with no access to anything I don't want.

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Mrhiddenlotus@reddit

There's also just better versions of what OpenClaw is going for like IronClaw or NanoClaw or ZeroClaw. Not without their own drawbacks of course.

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HotTakes4HotCakes@reddit

You could also just stop walking into quicksand by trying to make this shit part of your operations before the bubble bursts.

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Mrhiddenlotus@reddit

I know, I'm not advocating for it, I'm just saying that if you're going to do it you could do it in a less stupid way.

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Pathfinder-electron@reddit

Instead of using OC, I simply made an app which connects to my tmux (always open) and just writes to gemini-cli. it can do the same stuff OC can pretty much.

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Kumorigoe@reddit

Look at OP's profile. He's all-in on this shit.

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narcissisadmin@reddit

lOok At oP's prOfile. hE's aLl-iN On thiS shiT.

Fucking Christ

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stana32@reddit

"future job: AIs executive assistant"

AKA unemployed I guess

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webtechmonkey@reddit

OP has now hidden the incriminating history 😄

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LesbianDykeEtc@reddit

Jesus Christ you weren't kidding.

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stackjr@reddit

Ew.

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mydogcaneatyourdog@reddit

............yikes.

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Noobmode@reddit

I’ve seen some cool implementations for basically a glorified CTI feed. They have it on a completely segmented network then when it find threat intel it researches it, generates a report with links, then fires it off over slack or something else.

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Longjumping-Fan-3605@reddit

I run engineering and IT within regulated industry, i told my IT team to figure out how we can run openclaw safely in our environment... Businesses that cant figure out how to use these tools will not be for long.

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ASkepticalPotato@reddit

I really hope no sysadmin here uses OpenClaw

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Fragrant-Hamster-325@reddit

Why? I haven’t been online in weeks and haven’t heard a peep. I just installed OpenClaw and let it rip. As an Intune admin at Stryker I’m sure I’ve would’ve heard something by now.

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Elavia_@reddit

Generative AI has no distinction between data and commands and is thus fundamentally extremely insecure. If openclaw stumbles upon malicious code on any website it looks at (such as one instructing it to install ransomware) it is likely that it will execute it.

Also, if you haven't heard a peep about this before YOLOing it in corporate environment, that means you have not done your due diligence.

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n00lp00dle@reddit

As an Intune admin at Stryker

he even made it easy for you lol

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Elavia_@reddit

Ok I missed that part, haha

Alas several other commenters seem to genuinely be like dis

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Dr_Doctor_Doc@reddit

Whoosh

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NoPossibility4178@reddit

You should have been online like yesterday or so since there was a major CVE...

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VexingRaven@reddit

/r/woooosh

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NoPossibility4178@reddit

I missed the Stryker part... Although to be fair there was someone else being unironic about it.

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-GenlyAI-@reddit

I am 100% running it. Not at work as that's against policy. But on my personal VM.

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ConsciousEquipment@reddit

why??? it's like zapier but it does the stuff ITSELF 100%. We recently took on a new app and had to create an account in that for every employee and while it did have a bulk import feature, it needed a csv prepared in a specific format etc it was a pain in the butt. They let us give an AI agent api access and it created all these users based on a list that we just had. It even connected imap and confirmed that it sends mails from our @domain for user password reset feature. I used to do this manually and it was a whole bunch of effort. So I think it's good, and before you say I am shilling note I would not say what specific product we used nor would I even recommend anyone buy a subscription of it just for tasks like that. But when you have it around within your resources, why hate on the idea this saves so much hassle lmao

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Mrhiddenlotus@reddit

why hate on the idea this saves so much hassle lmao

The hassle comes later when your org gets absolutely skull fucked.

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Elavia_@reddit

Probably because it's a humongous unfixable vulnerability that will sooner or later obliterate your architecture.

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Darkhigh@reddit

You’re trolling right? Please tell me you are trolling….

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Senkyou@reddit

I've been curious about the model of use, but I'd never have it anywhere except test environments where I could observe in metered experiments

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Mrhiddenlotus@reddit

You are in for a rude awakening lol

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tecedu@reddit

why are we getting openclaw posts in sysadmin?

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Mindless_Consumer@reddit

Because, for good or il, sysadmins support systems the org decides to use.

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ansibleloop@reddit

Orgs without a security team or any sane people

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thunderbird32@reddit

Even with a security team, if someone in the C-suite says to use it...

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letsgoiowa@reddit

Maybe even the norm

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HotTakes4HotCakes@reddit

You say that like it's not common.

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OneSeaworthiness7768@reddit

I think at this point there are more AI/vibecode people here doing research for their tools to sell than actual sysadmins based on the posts we’re receiving lately.

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Elavia_@reddit

Because, alas, there's many reckless shitty sysadmins out there who don't realise or care how insecure it is.

Moments like this make me really appreciate having started my career as a SOC analyst.

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mhkohne@reddit

Kudos to you for trying to warn people. I can't condone anyone using this shit (it's built on plagiarism, dammit!), and I think this is one more sign that the collapse is sooner, not later, I sure as hell can't condone Anthropic pick8ng it's user's pockets like this.

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ansibleloop@reddit

Wait this isn't /r/shittysysadmin

Only glue eaters are using OpenClaw

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radicldreamer@reddit

Only glue eaters trust AI enough yo let it loose in prod without oversight. Just ask Amazon how that goes.

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DJMagicHandz@reddit

They disappeared my shipment during the big fucky wucky and tried to be slick with an order from Chewy. I'm trying to get my manager to step away from all of this AI nonsense.

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-GenlyAI-@reddit

I'm using Gemini-cli with OpenClaw. Hope pricing stays consistent.

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Quiet_Yellow2000@reddit

Using openclaw for any kind of work is insane. Where I work they will fire your ass if you use openclaw. It's a security disaster waiting to happen.

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Smith6612@reddit

It's the Big Tech way. Take a service that was promised, remove the Third Party API support, then maybe charge for it.

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chewb@reddit

Claude billing wasn’t changed, Claude pro was never supposed to be usef outside the official apps or webpage, just like the terms clearly say

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DigitalSignage2024@reddit (OP)

riiight, because everyone reads and memorizes t&c for every piece of software they use... not to mention, that even though they were showing leniency before, so from practical standpoint it materially changes how platform is being used

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nyhmbo551@reddit

I dont even use openclaw and knew its something that wasn't officially allowed. if you put 2+2 together you would also understand why they offer API rates separately

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electricheat@reddit

there was some confusion as to whether it was allowed or not https://thenewstack.io/anthropic-agent-sdk-confusion/

but yeah the TOS always said it was a no-no

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Darkhexical@reddit

If you didn't read it you probably heard about it when Google banned all users that used it with no recourse and of course didn't have a way to stop your payment ;p

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DigitalSignage2024@reddit (OP)

Yea, that was brutal - they straight up banned your account... but still 24 hour notice? what if i left it running and left on a week long vacay?

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mrbiggbrain@reddit

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

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Darkhexical@reddit

This is a standard clause across most software agreements. Any unauthorized modification or the use of third-party interfaces violates the Terms of Service. It’s similar to how bot clients are prohibited in online gaming.

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imnotsurewhattoput@reddit

They put out a bog post clarifying this within the past 2 months

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DigitalSignage2024@reddit (OP)

I think they are well within their rights to charge for the product and certainly dont have to give away token usage for free, but given the fact that they are giving away $100 regardless if one uses it or not plus offer 30% on usage credits, you know we are talking about probably amounts with 9 or more zeros, so they could have offered a more prominent notification in the software and maybe a 7 day notice

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RetPala@reddit

"AI can do anything"

"No, NOT LIKE THAT!"

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nemec@reddit

AI can do anything

when you pay for it

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Cormacolinde@reddit

No one pays for the true cost of AI.

No one pays the true cost of many things these days, tragedy of the commons and all that. Just adding the cost of pollution to anything would likely make it impossible to afford.

But LLMs? It’s so subsidized even if the price went up 10 times it still wouldn’t be enough.

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Darkhexical@reddit

Ai isn't going anywhere for a while tbh. Openai has like 150billion maybe even more in reserves and bleeds about 10 billion a year. That means they're going to be here for another 10 years.

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mydogcaneatyourdog@reddit

I haven't paid that close of attention to the deals they've been inking, so what are the terms around some of the funds they've "promised" in the AI circle jerk? If there are contractual obligations to pay out some of the funds I've seen, those are big chunks of that cash reserve.

And the thing is, when incoming funding dries up, these guys in charge don't just let the org bleed out with its normal operating budget - they siphon off what they can and rapidly increase the timelines of the fail state. So I'm not convinced that things can possibly be status quo beyond 2 years or so.

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Darkhexical@reddit

Those "deals" are just paying for servers. Nobody is secretly siphoning the cash away. Normal spending leaves a ten-year cash runway. But they decided to build giant supercomputers. That choice shrinks the runway to four years.

What if outside funding suddenly dries up? They just stop building the massive servers. They won't bleed out in two years. Plus, they are prepping a huge IPO. Wall Street will hand them billions soon.

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mydogcaneatyourdog@reddit

I didn't say bleed out in two years, I said the status quo will likely shift.

It sounds to me like you're approaching this perspective from a more rational management methodology of budgeting expenditures and planned infra improvements and scale out. I'm looking at what games have been played by the MBA's over the top. It's all speculative, but I'd say you should consider widening your evaluation a bit. I think it's very likely that we're going to start seeing the "cheap" service offerings suddenly scale up in cost and thusly start to impact adoption/use in a fair number of organizations in a span of 1-2 years. The incoming IPO's typically are the point in which these guys try to cash out - as the bag holders buy in, the options holders sell off.

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Darkhexical@reddit

You’re right that costs will increase, but high prices just force the market to diversify. When the "cheap" cloud era ends, businesses won't stop using AI. They will just shift to smaller, more efficient models that offer a longer runway. These smaller models are already good enough for 90% of enterprise tasks.

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CantaloupeCamper@reddit

Yeah, I knew this and I don’t even use openclaw…

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DefsNotAVirgin@reddit

If someone on my team is running open claw they won’t be on my team Monday lmao

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StaticFanatic3@reddit

Didn’t this happen weeks ago? Or are they just detecting the latest OpenClaw connector workaround?

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ZippySLC@reddit

Months ago there was a lot of FUD thrown around here of "people are getting banned by Anthropic for using Open Claw" yet nobody ever could prove it beyond "read the TOS, bro" and "well, I heard that...".

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packet_weaver@reddit

That was opencode several weeks back.

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DigitalSignage2024@reddit (OP)

No, it went in effect as of Apr 4, 2026. Just announced yesterday. I also see $100 credit in my account and 30% offer for extra usage

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ArchonTheta@reddit

Oh no!! Anyway…

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owlbynight@reddit

You're going to lose your job if you use this in a professional setting unless you work for a complete moron and thus, I don't know why this thread is even here.

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Pathfinder-electron@reddit

This company is done for me. Under 3 weeks they went from me wanting to use the 20x plan and buy it to no chance.

GPT Pro all the way.

Everything they did, with the usage mess up, openclaw scrap now and how they handled most things with their Trojan horse style of marketing.

Done with them.

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