Friday, Jul 24, 2026 The claims desk. Receipts included. POWERED BY LENZ ↗
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LEGAL

The Claim

Using an Anthropic subscription with OpenClaw violates Anthropic's terms and conditions.

Verified by Lenz ·

The Short Version

Anthropic's February 2026 policy update explicitly prohibits routing Claude Free, Pro, or Max subscription OAuth tokens through third-party tools like OpenClaw — this is a documented Terms of Service violation. However, the claim overstates the scope: OpenClaw also supports Anthropic API key authentication, which is a separate credential path not covered by the subscription-token ban. The most common way users connect their subscription to OpenClaw does violate the ToS, but the blanket framing misses this important distinction.

Caveats

  • The ToS violation specifically targets OAuth token reuse from consumer subscription accounts — not all forms of Anthropic authentication used with OpenClaw.
  • OpenClaw supports API key authentication, which is a separate billing and credential path not covered by the subscription-token prohibition.
  • The primary Anthropic legal text from February 2026 is quoted only through secondary sources; the original compliance document was not directly available in the evidence pool.

The Receipts

  1. Consumer Terms of Service Updates

    Anthropic Privacy Center

  2. Anthropic Software Directory Policy | Claude Help Center

    Claude Help Center

  3. Anthropic officially bans third-party subscription authentication - GIGAZINE

    GIGAZINE

  4. Google Restricts AI Ultra Subscribers Over OpenClaw OAuth, Days After Anthropic Ban

    Google Restricts AI Ultra Subscribers Over OpenClaw OAuth, Days After Anthropic Ban

  5. Anthropic's Confusing Claude Subscription Policy, Explained - Engineer's Codex

    Engineer's Codex

  6. Anthropic Banned OpenClaw: The OAuth Lockdown That Fractured the Claude Developer Community - Natural 20

    Natural 20

  7. China's Agentic AI Controversy - Lawfare

    Lawfare

  8. Anthropic clarifies ban on third-party tool access to Claude - daily.dev

    daily.dev

  9. Anthropic officially bans using subscription auth for third party use

    Hacker News

  10. Anthropic: You can still use your Claude accounts to run OpenClaw, NanoClaw and Co.

    The New Stack

+ 7 more sources — see the full list on Lenz

Filed Under

AnthropicAnthropic Terms of ServiceOpenClaw

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