Yeah folks, it's gonna be harder in the future to ensure OpenClaw still works with Anthropic models. pic.twitter.com/U6F8GZvPcH

It’s not clear if that was the key that restored the account. (We’ve asked Anthropic about it.) But the whole message string was enlightening on many levels.

To recap the recent history: This ban followed news last week that subscriptions to Anthropic’s Claude would no longer cover “third-party harnesses including OpenClaw,” the AI model company said.

OpenClaw users now have to pay for that usage separately, based on consumption, through Claude’s API. In essence, Anthropic, which offers its own agent, Cowork, is now charging a “claw tax.” Steinberger said he was following this new rule and using his API but was banned anyway.