How to Use Claude with OpenClaw?

Claude by Anthropic is one of the best AI models for OpenClaw. Known for strong reasoning, safety, and excellent instruction-following, Claude is the top recommendation for most users.

To set up Claude, you need an API key from Anthropic. Sign up at console.anthropic.com, add billing information, and generate an API key. Then configure it in OpenClaw.

Claude offers several model tiers. Claude Opus 4 provides the highest quality for complex tasks ($15/1M input tokens, $75/1M output). Claude Sonnet 4 is the best balance of quality and speed ($3/1M, $15/1M) — this is what we recommend for most users. Claude Haiku is the fastest and cheapest ($0.25/1M, $1.25/1M) for simple tasks.

For typical personal use (50-100 messages/day), expect to spend $3-10/month on Claude Sonnet. Heavy usage or Opus can cost $15-30/month.

Claude excels at: creative writing, code generation, data analysis, following complex instructions, and maintaining conversation context. It has a 200K token context window — large enough for extensive conversations and document analysis.

Tip: Start with Claude Sonnet. If you need better quality for specific tasks, switch to Opus. Use Haiku for high-volume, simple tasks like auto-replies.

openclaw config set provider anthropic
openclaw config set model claude-sonnet-4-20250514
openclaw config set apiKey sk-ant-your-key-here