Anthropic temporarily banned OpenClaw's creator from accessing Claude

April 10, 2026

TL;DR

Peter Steinberger, creator of OpenClaw and an employee at OpenAI, had his Anthropic Claude account suspended.
The suspension occurred shortly after Anthropic changed its policy, requiring separate API payments for third-party harnesses like OpenClaw.
Steinberger stated he was using Claude via API as per the new rules but was still banned.
Anthropic cited that subscription plans were not designed for the complex usage patterns of harnesses like OpenClaw.
Steinberger suggested the timing of the policy change and recent feature additions to Anthropic's own agent, Cowork, were related and potentially anticompetitive.
His account was reinstated after his complaint went viral.
Steinberger clarified he uses Claude only for testing OpenClaw compatibility and his work at OpenAI is separate from his role at the OpenClaw Foundation.

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