Anthropic officially bans using subscription auth for third party use

Their model actually doesn't have that much of a moat if at all. Their agent harness also doesn't, at least not for long. Writing an agent harness isn't that difficult. They are desperately trying to stay in power. I don´t like being a customer of this company and am investing lots of my time in moving away from them completely.

Not surprised, its the official stance by Anthropic.

I'm more surprised by people using subscription auth for OpenClaw when its officially not allowed.

At this point, are there decent alternatives to Anthropic models for coding that allow third-party usage?

Too bad will stick with codex as thinker and glm5 as hands, at a fraction of the cost.

I'm a bit lost on this one.

I can get a ridiculous amount of tokens in and out of something like gpt-5.2 via the API for $100.

Is this primarily about gas town and friends?

What about using claude -p as an api interface?

The reason I find this so egregious is because I don’t want to use Claude Code! It’s complete rubbish, completely sidelines security, and nobody seems to care. So I’m forced to use their slop if I want to use Claude models without getting a wallet emptying API bill? Forget it, I will use Codex or Gemini.

Claude Code is not the apex. We’re still collectively figuring out the best way to use models in software, this TOS change kills innovation.

So even simple apps that are just code usage monitors are banned?

This confirms they're selling those subscriptions at a loss which is simply not sustainable.

My alt Google accounts were all banned from Gemini access. Luckily Google left my main account alone. They are all cracking down.

Anthropic is just doing this out of spite. They had a real scenario to win mindshare and marketshare and they fucked up instead. They could have done what Open AI did - hired the OpenClaw/d founder. Instead, they sent him a legal notice for trademark violation. And now they're just pissed he works for their biggest competitor. Throw all tantrums you want, you're on the wrong side of this one, Anthropic.

important they have clarified that it's OK to use it for personal experimentation if you don't build a business out of it!

Cancelled my Claude and bought GLM coding plan + Codex.

at least there seems to be some clarification regarding Agent SDK ... unclear whats happening with OpenClaw https://x.com/atla_/status/2024399329310511426

How does this impact open router?

Can’t this restriction for the time being be bypassed via -p command line flag?

You can use Claude CLI as a relay - yes, it needs to be there -but its not that different than use the API

They really ficked up by not embracing openclaw now I use codex 5.3

People on here are acting like school children over this. It’s their product that they spent billions to make. Yet here we are complaining about why they should let you use third party products specifically made to compete against Anthropic.

You can still simply pay for API.

Sonnet literally just recommended using a subscription token for openclaw. Even anthropic's own AI doesn't understand its own TOS.

So here goes my OpenClaw integration with Anthropic via OAuth… While I see their business risk I also see the onboarding path for new paying customers. I just upgraded to Max and would even consider the API if cost were controllable. I hope that Anthropic finds a smart way to communicate with customers in a constructive way and offers advice for the not so skilled OpenClaw homelabbers instead of terminating their accounts… Is anybody here from Anthropic that could pick up that message before a PR nightmare happens?

Oh crap. I just logged into HN to ask if anyone knew of a working alternative to the Claude Code client. It's lost Claude's work multiple times in the last few days, and I'm ready to switch to a different provider. (4.6 is mildly better than 4.5, but the TUI is a deal breaker.)

So, I guess it's time to look into OpenAI Codex. Any other viable options? I have a 128GB iGPU, so maybe a local model would work for some tasks?

May we still use the agent sdk for our own private use with the max account? I’m a bit confused.

I have no issues with this. Anthropic did a great job with Claude Code.

It's a little bit sleazy as a business model to try to wedge one's self between Claude and its users.

OpenAI acquiring OpenClaw gives me bad vibes. How did OpenClaw gain so much traction so quickly? It doesn't seem organic.

I definitely feel much more aligned with Anthropic as a company. What they do seems more focused, meritocratic, organic and genuine.

OpenAI essentially appropriated all their current IP from the people... They basically gutted the non-profit and stole its IP. Then sold a huge chunk to Microsoft... Yes, they literally sold the IP they stole to Microsoft, in broad daylight. Then they used media spin to make it sound like they appropriated it from Elon because Elon donated a few millions... But Elon got his tax deduction! The public footed the bill for those deductions... The IP belonged to the non-profit; to the public, not Elon, nor any of the donors. I mean let's not even mention Suchir Balaji, the OpenAI researcher who supposedly "committed suicide" after trying to warn everyone about the stolen IP.

OpenAI is clearly trying to slander Anthropic, trying to present themselves as the good guys after their OpenClaw acquisition and really rubbing it in all over HN... Over which they have much influence.

Codex has now caught up to Claude Opus and this is a defensive move by Anthropic

Just a friendly reminder also to anyone outside the US that these subscriptions cannot be used for commercial work. Check the consumer ToS when you sign up. It’s quite clear.

That's too bad, in a way it was a bit of an unofficial app store for Anthropic - I am sure they've probably looked at that and hopefully this means there's something on it's way.

Not really sure if its even feasible to enforce it unless the idea is to discourage the big players from doing it.

[dead]

The number one thing we need is cheap abundant decentralized clean energy, and these things are laughable.

Unfortunately neither political party can get all of the above.

And I just bought my mac mini this morning... Sorry everyone

I think this is shortsighted.

The markets value recurring subscription revenue at something like 10x “one-off” revenue, Anthropic is leaving a lot of enterprise value on the table with this approach.

In practice this approach forces AI apps to pay Anthropic for tokens, and then bill their customers a subscription. Customers could bring their own API key but it’s sketchy to put that into every app you want to try, and consumers aren’t going to use developer tools. And many categories of free app are simply excluded, which could in aggregate drive a lot more demand for subscriptions.

If Anthropic is worried about quota, seems they could set lower caps for third-party subscription usage? Still better than forcing API keys.

(Maybe this is purely about displacing other IDE products, rather than a broader market play.)