AI Perks curates and provides access to exclusive discounts, credits, and deals on AI tools, cloud services, and APIs to help startups and developers save money.
What Is the Best AI Model for OpenClaw?
Claude Opus 4.6 is the best AI model for OpenClaw in 2026 if quality and safety matter most. The creator, Peter Steinberger, explicitly recommends Anthropic Pro/Max with Opus 4.6 for its long-context strength and superior prompt-injection resistance. But Opus is also the most expensive option - and not everyone needs it.
For most OpenClaw users, Claude Sonnet 4.5 hits the sweet spot between capability and cost. It handles email automation, calendar management, and web browsing at a fraction of Opus pricing. If you want to run the best model without worrying about cost, AI Perks provides free Anthropic credits that cover months of heavy usage.
This guide compares every model that works with OpenClaw - with real costs, real benchmarks, and the best choice for each use case.
AI Perks curates and provides access to exclusive discounts, credits, and deals on AI tools, cloud services, and APIs to help startups and developers save money.
Why Does Your Model Choice Matter More Than Hardware?
OpenClaw is just a framework. It sends your instructions to an AI model, receives a response, and executes the result. The model IS the brain.
A weak model means missed instructions, broken automations, and security vulnerabilities. A strong model means reliable task execution, better context understanding, and fewer costly mistakes.
Here's why this matters practically:
- Prompt injection resistance: OpenClaw reads emails, browses websites, and processes untrusted content. A model that falls for prompt injection can leak your data or execute malicious commands. Palo Alto Networks flagged this as part of OpenClaw's "lethal trifecta" of risks.
- Long-context performance: OpenClaw sends its entire conversation history with every request. Sessions routinely hit 200,000+ tokens. Models that degrade at long context windows make expensive mistakes.
- Tool-use accuracy: OpenClaw uses function calling to interact with 50+ integrations. Models with poor tool-use accuracy trigger wrong actions - sending the wrong email, editing the wrong calendar event, posting to the wrong channel.
The cheapest model is rarely the cheapest choice when you factor in failed automations, retries, and the time you spend fixing errors.
AI Perks curates and provides access to exclusive discounts, credits, and deals on AI tools, cloud services, and APIs to help startups and developers save money.
How Do Claude Opus, Sonnet, and Haiku Compare for OpenClaw?
Anthropic's Claude family is OpenClaw's recommended backbone. Here's how the three tiers compare for agent workloads.
Claude Opus 4.6 - The Premium Choice
Opus 4.6 is the most capable model available. It excels at multi-step reasoning and handles complex automation chains without losing context. Steinberger recommends it specifically for OpenClaw due to its strongest-in-class prompt-injection resistance.
Best for: Power users running always-on agents, sensitive workflows (finance, healthcare data), complex multi-step automations.
Cost: $15 per million input tokens, $75 per million output tokens.
Claude Sonnet 4.5 - The Sweet Spot
Sonnet 4.5 delivers 80-90% of Opus quality at roughly one-fifth the cost. It handles most OpenClaw tasks reliably - email management, calendar scheduling, web browsing, and standard automations. For the majority of users, Sonnet is the right call.
Best for: Daily assistant use, email automation, calendar management, standard integrations.
Cost: $3 per million input tokens, $15 per million output tokens.
Claude Haiku 4.5 - The Budget Option
Haiku 4.5 is 25x cheaper than Opus on input tokens. It works for simple, single-step tasks but struggles with complex reasoning chains. Use it for basic commands and simple lookups - not for autonomous workflows.
Best for: Simple tasks, quick lookups, low-stakes automations where errors are acceptable.
Cost: $0.80 per million input tokens, $4 per million output tokens.
| Model | Input Cost (per 1M tokens) | Output Cost (per 1M tokens) | Best OpenClaw Use Case | Quality Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Opus 4.6 | $15.00 | $75.00 | Complex automations, security-sensitive tasks | 10/10 |
| Claude Sonnet 4.5 | $3.00 | $15.00 | Daily assistant, email, calendar, web browsing | 8/10 |
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | $0.80 | $4.00 | Simple tasks, basic commands | 6/10 |
All three models are available through free credit programs. AI Perks covers every major Anthropic credit program - up to $25,000 in free Claude credits.
AI Perks curates and provides access to exclusive discounts, credits, and deals on AI tools, cloud services, and APIs to help startups and developers save money.
Is GPT-4o Better Than Claude for OpenClaw?
GPT-4o is OpenClaw's primary alternative to Claude. It works well, but there are trade-offs.
Where GPT-4o wins:
- Faster response times on simple tasks
- Strong at code generation and structured output
- Broad general knowledge
Where GPT-4o falls short for OpenClaw:
- Weaker prompt-injection resistance than Claude Opus - a critical concern when OpenClaw processes untrusted content from emails and websites
- Shorter effective context window - GPT-4o supports 128K tokens vs Claude's 200K, and quality degrades faster at the edges
- Less reliable tool use in complex, multi-step chains according to community benchmarks
Cost: $2.50 per million input tokens, $10.00 per million output tokens.
GPT-4o slots between Sonnet and Haiku on price. For OpenClaw specifically, Sonnet 4.5 outperforms it on agent-specific tasks. But if you already have OpenAI credits, GPT-4o is a solid option.
AI Perks provides free credits for both Anthropic and OpenAI - so you can test both and decide without spending anything.
AI Perks curates and provides access to exclusive discounts, credits, and deals on AI tools, cloud services, and APIs to help startups and developers save money.
Can You Run OpenClaw With DeepSeek or Local Models?
DeepSeek V3 has become the go-to budget model for OpenClaw users who want to minimize costs. At roughly $0.27 per million input tokens and $1.10 per million output tokens, it's 10-50x cheaper than Claude Opus.
The reality check:
- DeepSeek handles basic OpenClaw tasks reasonably well - simple commands, routine automation, basic email processing
- It struggles with complex multi-step reasoning and long context windows
- Prompt-injection resistance is significantly weaker than Claude or GPT-4o
- Reliability drops noticeably on tasks requiring precise tool use across multiple integrations
Local Models (Ollama, LM Studio)
Running a local model like Llama 3.3, Mistral, or Qwen means $0 in API costs. But the trade-offs are real:
- Hardware requirements: You need a GPU with 16GB+ VRAM for acceptable performance. A Mac with 32GB+ unified memory works, but response times are slower than cloud APIs.
- Quality gap: Local models at the 7B-70B parameter range cannot match Claude Opus or even Sonnet on complex agent tasks.
- No long-context support: Most local models cap at 8K-32K tokens. OpenClaw sessions routinely exceed 100K tokens.
Local models work for experimentation. For production OpenClaw usage - managing your real email, calendar, and finances - cloud models with proper safety guardrails are the better choice.
| Model | Input Cost (per 1M tokens) | Quality for OpenClaw | Best Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Opus 4.6 | $15.00 | Excellent | Power users, sensitive data |
| Claude Sonnet 4.5 | $3.00 | Very Good | Most users, daily assistant |
| GPT-4o | $2.50 | Good | General tasks, code-heavy workflows |
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | $0.80 | Fair | Simple commands only |
| DeepSeek V3 | $0.27 | Fair | Budget users, basic tasks |
| Local (Llama 3.3 70B) | $0.00 | Limited | Experimentation, privacy-first |
Why pay for any of them? Free credit programs from AI Perks provide up to $25,000+ in Anthropic credits and $50,000+ in OpenAI credits - enough to run Opus for months without spending a dollar.
AI Perks curates and provides access to exclusive discounts, credits, and deals on AI tools, cloud services, and APIs to help startups and developers save money.
How Much Does Each Model Cost per Month With OpenClaw?
Here's what OpenClaw actually costs per month based on real user data, broken down by model and usage level.
| Usage Level | Claude Opus 4.6 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 | GPT-4o | DeepSeek V3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Light (10 tasks/day) | $80 - $150 | $15 - $30 | $12 - $25 | $2 - $5 |
| Moderate (30 tasks/day) | $200 - $400 | $40 - $80 | $30 - $60 | $5 - $12 |
| Heavy (always-on agent) | $500 - $750+ | $100 - $200 | $80 - $150 | $15 - $30 |
| Extreme (multi-agent) | $1,000 - $3,600 | $200 - $500 | $150 - $400 | $30 - $80 |
The pattern is clear: Model choice alone can cut your costs by 5-50x. But downgrading models means downgrading quality.
The smarter move is to run the best model and eliminate the cost entirely. 8 separate credit programs offer free Anthropic credits in 2026, ranging from $5 to $100,000 per program. Combined, they exceed $150,000. Most developers only know about one or two.
AI Perks covers all of them.
AI Perks curates and provides access to exclusive discounts, credits, and deals on AI tools, cloud services, and APIs to help startups and developers save money.
How Do You Run the Best Model for $0?
You don't have to choose between quality and cost. Here's the strategy:
Step 1: Get Free AI Credits
Subscribe to AI Perks and follow the guides to claim Claude API credits from multiple programs. Stacking credits is the key - one program gives you months, combining several gives you years.
Step 2: Configure OpenClaw With Claude Sonnet 4.5
Start with Sonnet as your default model. It covers 90% of use cases at a fraction of Opus pricing. Set it in your OpenClaw config as the primary LLM.
Step 3: Use Opus for High-Stakes Tasks
Configure OpenClaw to use Opus 4.6 for sensitive operations - financial tasks, automated emails to clients, anything where errors have consequences. Use Sonnet for everything else.
Step 4: Set Spending Alerts
Even with free credits, configure spending limits in the Anthropic console. One misconfigured heartbeat can burn through credits faster than expected.
Step 5: Monitor and Optimize
Track your token usage weekly. Identify which automations consume the most tokens and consider whether simpler models can handle them. AI Perks gives you enough credits to experiment freely.
AI Perks curates and provides access to exclusive discounts, credits, and deals on AI tools, cloud services, and APIs to help startups and developers save money.
Which Model Should You Pick for Your Use Case?
Not sure which model fits your workflow? Here's the quick guide:
Choose Claude Opus 4.6 if:
- You process sensitive data (financial, medical, legal)
- You run complex, multi-step automation chains
- Security is a top priority and your agent reads untrusted content
- You have free credits from AI Perks to cover the cost
Choose Claude Sonnet 4.5 if:
- You use OpenClaw as a daily assistant (email, calendar, messages)
- You want the best quality-to-cost ratio
- You run standard automations with 50+ integrations
- You want reliable performance without extreme costs
Choose GPT-4o if:
- You already have OpenAI credits
- Your workflows are code-heavy (GitHub, CI/CD, DevOps)
- You want faster response times for simple tasks
Choose DeepSeek V3 if:
- Budget is your primary constraint and you have no free credits
- You only run simple, low-stakes automations
- You're comfortable with lower reliability and weaker safety guardrails
Choose Local Models if:
- Privacy is non-negotiable and no data can leave your device
- You're experimenting or learning, not running production workflows
- You have capable hardware (32GB+ RAM, dedicated GPU)
For most people, the answer is Sonnet 4.5 with free credits from AI Perks. You get premium quality at zero cost.
AI Perks curates and provides access to exclusive discounts, credits, and deals on AI tools, cloud services, and APIs to help startups and developers save money.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best AI model for OpenClaw?
Claude Opus 4.6 is the highest quality model for OpenClaw, recommended by the creator for its long-context strength and prompt-injection resistance. Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the best value option for most users. Get free credits for both through AI Perks.
How much does it cost to run OpenClaw with Claude?
Light usage with Claude Sonnet costs $15-$30/month. Heavy usage with Claude Opus can reach $500-$750/month. Free credit programs from AI Perks can cover these costs entirely, providing up to $25,000+ in Anthropic credits.
Can I use DeepSeek with OpenClaw?
Yes, OpenClaw supports DeepSeek V3 as an alternative model. It costs 10-50x less than Claude Opus but has weaker reasoning, shorter context windows, and lower prompt-injection resistance. It works for basic tasks but is not recommended for sensitive workflows.
Can I switch models in OpenClaw?
Yes. OpenClaw lets you configure different models for different tasks within the same instance. A common strategy is Claude Sonnet 4.5 for daily assistant use and Opus 4.6 for high-stakes operations. You can switch between Anthropic, OpenAI, DeepSeek, and local models at any time.
Is Claude better than GPT-4o for OpenClaw?
For OpenClaw specifically, Claude models outperform GPT-4o on long-context tasks, prompt-injection resistance, and multi-step tool use. GPT-4o is faster on simple tasks and strong at code generation. Both are available free through AI Perks.
Can I run OpenClaw with a free local model?
Yes, OpenClaw supports local models via Ollama and LM Studio running Llama 3.3, Mistral, and Qwen. However, local models lack the reasoning quality, context length, and safety features of cloud models like Claude. They work for experimentation and privacy-first setups but are not recommended for production workflows.
How do I get free Claude credits for OpenClaw?
Multiple credit programs offer free Anthropic Claude credits in 2026 - ranging from $5 to $100,000 per program. Combined, they exceed $150,000. AI Perks provides step-by-step guides to every available program so you can stack credits and run OpenClaw for free.
AI Perks curates and provides access to exclusive discounts, credits, and deals on AI tools, cloud services, and APIs to help startups and developers save money.
Run OpenClaw With the Best Model - For Free
Your model choice determines whether OpenClaw is a frustrating toy or a reliable digital employee. Claude Opus 4.6 and Sonnet 4.5 are the best options, and you don't need to pay for them.
With AI Perks, you get:
- Access to $5,000-$175,000+ in free AI API credits
- Step-by-step guides for every Anthropic, OpenAI, and AWS credit program
- Enough credits to run Claude Opus for months of heavy OpenClaw usage
- 200+ additional startup perks beyond AI credits
Stop choosing between the cheap model and the good model. Run the best model and pay nothing.
The best AI model for OpenClaw is the one you can afford to run every day. Make that every model - for free - at getaiperks.com.
