If OpenClaw is throwing 403 permission_error when it tries to call Claude, your OAuth session has been revoked by Anthropic. This is not a bug you can wait out — it’s a deliberate policy change. Here’s exactly what to do.

Time estimate: 10–20 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Who this affects: OpenClaw users who signed in with Claude Pro or Max subscription credentials (OAuth flow) rather than a direct API key

First: Confirm You’re Affected

Check your OpenClaw logs. If you see something like:

Error: 403 permission_error — OAuth token rejected
Model: claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022
Auth method: oauth

You’re in the right place. If you’re using an API key from console.anthropic.com and seeing 403s, that’s likely today’s separate outage — wait it out.

Option A: Switch to a Direct Anthropic API Key

This keeps Claude as your model while removing the OAuth dependency.

Step 1: Get an API Key

  1. Go to console.anthropic.com
  2. Sign in with your Anthropic account
  3. Navigate to API Keys → Create Key
  4. Copy the key (starts with sk-ant-)

Note: This is separate billing from your Pro/Max subscription. You’ll be charged per token, not a flat monthly fee. For light personal use, costs are typically $1–5/month. For heavy agentic workloads, budget accordingly.

Step 2: Update OpenClaw Config

In your config.yml (or through OpenClaw’s settings UI):

providers:
  anthropic:
    auth_method: api_key
    api_key: sk-ant-your-key-here
    model: claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022

Or via the CLI:

openclaw config set anthropic.auth_method api_key
openclaw config set anthropic.api_key sk-ant-your-key-here

Step 3: Restart and Test

openclaw restart
openclaw test-provider anthropic

You should see ✓ Provider connected in the output.

Option B: Migrate to an Alternative Provider

If you don’t want to pay per-token to Anthropic, several solid alternatives work with OpenClaw’s OpenAI-compatible provider interface.

Kimi K2.5 (by Moonshot AI) has been getting strong reviews as a Claude Sonnet-class model with a generous free tier and affordable paid API. It’s what multiple community members have migrated to.

Setup:

  1. Create an account at platform.moonshot.cn (English UI available)
  2. Generate an API key
  3. Update OpenClaw:
providers:
  default:
    provider: openai_compatible
    api_base: https://api.moonshot.cn/v1
    api_key: sk-your-kimi-key
    model: moonshot-v1-128k

MiniMax

MiniMax offers a capable model with OpenAI-compatible endpoints:

providers:
  default:
    provider: openai_compatible
    api_base: https://api.minimax.chat/v1
    api_key: your-minimax-key
    model: abab6.5s-chat

Ollama (Local, Free)

For a zero-cost fallback that works offline:

ollama pull llama3.2

providers:
  default:
    provider: openai_compatible
    api_base: http://localhost:11434/v1
    api_key: ollama
    model: llama3.2

Performance will depend on your hardware. On Apple Silicon, llama3.2:8b runs well in real-time.

Option C: Keep OAuth as Fallback, Add API Key as Primary

If you’re not ready to abandon OAuth entirely (maybe hoping Anthropic reverses the policy), configure a provider priority so OpenClaw falls back gracefully:

providers:
  primary:
    provider: openai_compatible
    api_base: https://api.moonshot.cn/v1
    api_key: sk-your-kimi-key
    model: moonshot-v1-128k
  fallback:
    provider: anthropic
    auth_method: api_key
    api_key: sk-ant-your-key-here
    model: claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022

This way your agents keep running on Kimi K2.5 while you maintain access to Claude via API key for tasks where you specifically want it.

Understanding the Cost Difference

Here’s a rough breakdown for common agentic workloads:

Provider Pricing Model Est. Monthly Cost (moderate use)
Claude Pro (OAuth) $20/month flat $20 (now blocked for OpenClaw)
Claude API (direct) Per token (~$3/M input, $15/M output) $2–15 depending on usage
Kimi K2.5 Per token (competitive rates) $1–8
Ollama (local) Free $0 (electricity only)

For most personal agent use cases, direct Claude API or Kimi K2.5 will come out cheaper than a flat Pro subscription — especially if your agents run on a schedule rather than constantly.

Community Resources

  • OpenClaw GitHub Issue #31306 — Active thread with community-submitted config snippets for alternative providers
  • OpenClaw Discord #providers — Real-time discussion of working configurations
  • Medium (rentierdigital) — Full documented migration story from Claude OAuth to Kimi K2.5 on a $15/month VPS

Sources

  1. OpenClaw GitHub — Issue #31306 (March 2, 2026)
  2. daveswift.com — OAuth in third-party apps analysis (March 2, 2026)
  3. Medium (rentierdigital) — Claude OAuth migration walkthrough (March 2, 2026)
  4. jacopocastellano.com — Anthropic Max license cutoff report (March 2, 2026)

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