Anthropic Shut Down the Claude OAuth Workaround. Here is the Cheapest Alternative

Anthropic shut down the Claude OAuth workaround. Here's the cheapest alternative in 2026. In January 2026, Anthropic shut down the Claude OAuth token workaround overnight. One day you were getting $1,000+ worth of Claude API usage for $200/month. The next day: nothing. If you're an OpenClaw user who lost this workaround, here's the fastest path to affordable LLM access in 2026 — without crypto wallets, without complex setup. What happened to the Claude OAuth workaround? Late 2025, developers discovered you could extract the OAuth token from a Claude Pro or Max subscription and feed it directly into OpenClaw. The economics were absurd: a $200/month Max subscription could replace $1,000+ in Anthropic API billing. In January 2026, Anthropic closed it. DHH called the move "very customer hostile." The HN thread hit 245+ points. A GitHub issue collected 147+ reactions. The workaround is gone. The bills came back. Thousands of OpenClaw users are now paying full API price — or desperately sear