Anthropic temporarily banned OpenClaw's creator from accessing Claude
This ban took place after Claude's pricing changed for OpenClaw users last week.
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.