Claude Ends Free Access for Third-Party Apps

GENERATIVE AI PRICING UPDATE April 04, 2026 mediastack

Anthropic has ended free Claude AI access through third-party tools like OpenClaw, effective April 4 at 3PM ET. Users of such apps must now pay via a usage bundle or provide their own Claude API key. Boris Cherny, head of Claude Code, cited surging demand and capacity management as reasons for the change, stating subscriptions were not built for third-party usage patterns. OpenClaw users can switch to discounted usage bundles or alternative AI integrations like xAI, Perplexity, or DeepSeek.

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