SAN FRANCISCO — Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company behind the popular Claude models, is introducing usage-based "pay-as-you-go" pricing for third-party tools and services connecting to its chatbot, marking a significant shift from its flat-rate subscription model as explosive demand strains computing resources.

The change, which took effect April 4 for tools like OpenClaw and is expanding to other third-party harnesses, means Claude Pro and Max subscribers can no longer rely solely on their monthly fees for automated or high-volume external integrations. Instead, such usage will draw from a separate pay-as-you-go "extra usage" balance billed at standard API rates.

Anthropic notified affected users via email that starting at noon Pacific on April 4, third-party harnesses would no longer consume subscription limits. Boris Cherny, head of Claude Code at Anthropic, explained on X that subscriptions "weren't built for the usage patterns of these third-party tools." The company aims to manage growth sustainably while prioritizing direct customers and API users.

The move comes as Claude's popularity has skyrocketed, with usage reportedly overwhelming capacity in some cases. Heavy automated agent workloads through external frameworks were effectively subsidizing at flat subscription prices — sometimes $20 for Pro or $100-$200 for Max tiers — that did not reflect the true computational cost of continuous operation.

To ease the transition, Anthropic offered a one-time credit equal to each subscriber's monthly........

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