Anthropic reinstates OpenClaw and third-party agent usage on Claude subscriptions — with a catch

Anthropic announced on October 18, 2023, that it is reintroducing support for third-party agentic tools like OpenClaw for Claude subscribers, but with restrictions. The company added a new 'Agent SDK' credit tier to its paid subscriptions, allowing users to allocate a fixed monthly credit pool for programmatic uses, including external agents. This reverses a policy introduced in April 2026 that prohibited Claude subscriptions from powering such tools due to excessive token consumption and infrastructure strain. The April ban followed reports that some subscribers were using OpenClaw and similar agents to process thousands of dollars worth of tokens beyond their $20–$200 monthly subscription costs. Anthropic cited inefficiencies in third-party agents, which bypassed its prompt caching mechanisms designed to optimize compute costs. The company noted that while its infrastructure, including the 300MW Colossus 1 data center with over 220,000 GPUs, had expanded, demand from agentic workflows remained unsustainable. Under the new system, subscribers can now use their monthly credits for third-party agents, but unused credits do not roll over. This shift ensures that inefficiencies in external tools no longer impact Anthropic’s broader user base or subscription pricing. The change applies to all Claude Pro and Max subscribers, who can now allocate credits specifically for agentic usage through the updated subscription tiers. Anthropic’s Head of Claude Code, Boris Cherny, previously highlighted that third-party agents lacked optimizations like prompt caching, making them difficult to sustain. The new 'Agent SDK' credit system addresses this by isolating the cost of programmatic usage, preventing it from affecting the flat-rate subscription model. Users must now explicitly manage their credits for external agents, ensuring transparency in usage costs. The policy change reflects Anthropic’s efforts to balance innovation with resource sustainability. While OpenClaw and similar tools are now accessible again, subscribers must account for their agentic usage separately, avoiding the prior model where third-party agents drained subscription-based resources unpredictably. The company continues to encourage users to explore its first-party tools, like Claude Code and Claude Cowork, which are optimized for efficiency.