Is OpenClaw Free?
Yes. OpenClaw is free and open-source under the MIT licence. The software costs nothing; you only pay for the server it runs on and your LLM API usage, typically under $100/month combined.
OpenClaw itself is genuinely free. It is released under the MIT licence, one of the most permissive open-source licences, which means you can run, modify, and even commercialise it without paying for the software. With 15,000+ GitHub stars and 200+ contributors, it is a maintained community project, not a freemium funnel.
“Free software” is not the same as “free to operate”, though. There is no licence fee, but running an always-on agent has two unavoidable running costs: somewhere to host it and the LLM it thinks with.
How it works
OpenClaw is downloaded and run on infrastructure you control. The two cost lines are:
- Hosting. A small VPS meeting the minimum specs (roughly 2 cores, 2 GB RAM). Low-cost managed hosts like OneClaw or Blink Claw run ~$12–22/month if you would rather not manage a server.
- LLM API usage. OpenClaw is LLM-agnostic, so you pay your provider (Claude, GPT, Gemini, DeepSeek) for what the agent consumes.
Combined, infra plus LLM API typically lands under $100/month. There is also a time cost: roughly 1–3 hours/month of maintenance that does not show up on any invoice. For the full breakdown see how much OpenClaw costs to run.
Worked example
| Line item | Cost | Free? |
|---|---|---|
| OpenClaw software (MIT) | $0 | Yes |
| Hosting (VPS or cheap managed) | ~$12–100/month | No |
| LLM API usage | Pay-as-you-go | No |
| Your maintenance time | ~1–3 hrs/month | No |
So the answer is “free to download, not free to run”. For most people the meaningful cost is the LLM usage plus the hours of upkeep.
Common questions
Does OpenClaw have a paid tier?
No. The project is fully MIT-licensed and free. Costs come only from hosting and LLM usage.
What’s the cheapest way to run it?
A small VPS or a low-cost managed host (~$12–22/month), plus modest LLM usage.
How much does running it actually cost?
Infra plus LLM API usually stays under $100/month. See the full cost breakdown.
Are there hidden costs?
The main one is your time: roughly 1–3 hours/month of maintenance.
Is Liv free?
Liv was an independent managed service built on OpenClaw, priced at Pro $79/mo or Max $149/mo. It is closed to new signups and shuts down on 26 September 2026; OpenClaw itself remains free.
Can I commercialise something built on OpenClaw?
Yes. The MIT licence permits commercial use, which is exactly how managed services are built on top of it.