OpenClaw with Claude Max Plan: Is It Worth It?

When Anthropic launched the Claude Max subscription ($100/month), a common question in OpenClaw communities was: "Can I use this with OpenClaw?"

The short answer: not directly. The longer answer explains what you actually need and whether Claude is the right brain for your OpenClaw instance.

Claude Max vs Anthropic API — Two Separate Products

Claude Max is a subscription to claude.ai — Anthropic's consumer web interface and apps. It gives you:

• Higher message volume limits on claude.ai
• Access to Claude Opus (the most capable model)
• Extended thinking features
• Claude's built-in tools (web search, code execution, etc.)

Anthropic API is the developer API — what OpenClaw uses. It's pay-per-token, billed separately from any claude.ai subscription. You authenticate with an API key, not a Claude Max subscription.

These are completely different products and billing systems. Having Claude Max doesn't give you free API access, and API usage doesn't count against your Max subscription.

Setting Up OpenClaw with the Anthropic API

Step 1: Create an API key

1. Go to console.anthropic.com
2. Navigate to API Keys
3. Click Create Key, name it "OpenClaw"
4. Copy the key — it starts with sk-ant-
5. Add credits under Billing

Step 2: Configure OpenClaw

Add the Anthropic provider to ~/.openclaw/config/providers.yml:

providers:
  anthropic:
    api_key: "sk-ant-your-key-here"
    default_model: "claude-sonnet-4-5"
    models:
      - id: "claude-sonnet-4-5"
        max_tokens: 8192
      - id: "claude-haiku-4-5"
        max_tokens: 4096
      - id: "claude-opus-4-6"
        max_tokens: 8192

Set as active provider in config.yml:

llm:
  active_provider: "anthropic"
  active_model: "claude-sonnet-4-5"

Restart OpenClaw and test.

Which Claude Model Should You Use?

Recommended setup: Sonnet as default, Haiku for high-frequency simple messages, Opus only when you explicitly ask for deep analysis.

llm:
  routing:
    - pattern: "^(analyse|deep|research|compare|draft long)"
      model: "claude-opus-4-6"
    - pattern: "^(remind|check|quick|what time|weather)"
      model: "claude-haiku-4-5"
    - default:
      model: "claude-sonnet-4-5"

Why Claude Works Particularly Well with OpenClaw

A few things make Claude a strong backend for an AI agent:

Instruction-following precision. Claude reliably follows structured instructions in your SOUL.md. If you tell it "never respond with more than 3 bullet points unless asked", it remembers. Other models are more likely to drift from complex instruction sets.

Long context window. Claude Sonnet handles up to 200k tokens. When OpenClaw passes long conversation histories or documents as context, Claude doesn't lose the thread.

Tool use reliability. Claude handles OpenClaw's function/tool calls — integration triggers, skill invocations — with high reliability. Missed or malformed tool calls are a common frustration with smaller models.

Conservative with uncertain information. Claude is more likely to say "I don't know" than confabulate. For a persistent agent making decisions (should it send that email?), this matters.

So Is Claude Max Worth It for OpenClaw Users?

Claude Max ($100/month) is not relevant to OpenClaw. It doesn't unlock API access, doesn't reduce API costs, and doesn't affect your OpenClaw setup in any way.

What IS worth considering:

• If you already pay for Claude Max for claude.ai use, your API costs are entirely separate
• For OpenClaw alone, Claude Sonnet via API at ~$10–20/month personal use is the practical option
• Claude Opus via API makes sense for specific heavy analytical tasks, not as a default

The question "is Claude Max worth it?" is a question about your claude.ai usage — web chat, Claude's built-in tools, extended thinking. That's orthogonal to OpenClaw.

Claude API vs OpenAI API for OpenClaw

Many OpenClaw users run both and route by task type. Neither is strictly better — they have different strengths.

Related reading:

• Best LLM for OpenClaw: Full Comparison
• How to Use OpenClaw with OpenAI
• Run OpenClaw with Local Models (Zero Cost)