Anthropic has announced a significant policy change, effective April 4 at 3:00 PM Eastern Time, restricting access to third-party tools through its Claude subscriptions. This move affects projects like OpenClaw, which will now require additional paid plans or pay-as-you-go API pricing. Developers previously paying around $20 monthly may see costs rise to hundreds or thousands of dollars. The decision is linked to Peter Steinberger, OpenClaw's founder, joining OpenAI, and aligns with Anthropic's strategy to promote its own tool ecosystem. This policy marks the culmination of Anthropic's gradual restrictions on third-party access, reflecting a broader industry trend towards ecosystem consolidation and increased platform dependency risks for developers.