Anthropic temporarily banned OpenClaw’s creator from accessing Claude
OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger was temporarily banned from Claude, sparking debate over AI agent competition.
Anthropic sparked controversy by temporarily suspending the Claude account of Peter Steinberger, the developer behind the popular OpenClaw agent framework. The ban, issued for 'suspicious' activity, was reversed within hours after Steinberger's public post went viral on X. An Anthropic engineer quickly intervened, stating the company has never banned anyone for using OpenClaw and offered assistance. The incident highlights growing tensions between AI model providers and third-party agent developers.
The suspension occurred just one week after Anthropic instituted a significant pricing change, announcing that standard Claude subscriptions would no longer cover usage through 'third-party harnesses including OpenClaw.' Users must now pay for this consumption separately via the Claude API, a policy Steinberger and others have dubbed a 'claw tax.' Anthropic claims the change was necessary because subscriptions weren't designed for the intensive, automated usage patterns of agent frameworks, which can run continuous reasoning loops and integrate with numerous tools.
Steinberger, who is now employed by rival OpenAI, was following the new API rules when banned. He publicly criticized the timing, suggesting Anthropic first copied popular OpenClaw features into its own closed agent, Claude Cowork (such as the Claude Dispatch feature), before effectively locking out the open-source alternative. When questioned why he uses Claude at all, Steinberger clarified he only uses it for testing to ensure OpenClaw updates remain compatible for its substantial user base, which still heavily prefers Claude over other models for certain tasks.
- Anthropic temporarily banned OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger, reinstating his account hours later after a viral post.
- The ban followed a new policy requiring OpenClaw users to pay separate API fees, dubbed a 'claw tax,' as subscriptions no longer cover third-party agent usage.
- Steinberger, now an OpenAI employee, accused Anthropic of copying OpenClaw features into its Claude Cowork agent before changing the pricing model.
Why It Matters
This clash signals escalating competition between AI giants and open-source tools, potentially raising costs and limiting choice for developers building on top of models.