Why "per-user infrastructure" instead of a shared model?
Two reasons. Privacy: your conversations never share a process with another user's. Capability: your agent can run real tools (shell, file ops, scheduling) without us worrying about cross-tenant abuse. The trade-off is cost — we pass that through transparently as the $19.99 monthly fee.
How is this different from ChatGPT or Claude?
Those are great for stateless chat. OpenClaw is built around a persistent agent that has your memory, your tool access, your schedule, and a real container to act in. Think "Slack DM with a coworker" vs "search engine query."
What model does it use?
Default fronted provider is DeepSeek (fast, cheap, capable). You can bring your own Gemini, OpenAI, Anthropic, or Perplexity key from Settings → Connections to route through your account instead. Future versions will add more.
Where does my data live?
Chat memory: in your dedicated container on Fly.io. Subscription and account state: our control plane on Railway. BYOK keys: AES-256-GCM encrypted with AAD bound to your user id, stored on our control plane. Nothing is sent to ad networks or sold. See the
Privacy Policy.
Can I delete my account and everything in it?
Yes. Settings → Profile → Delete Account. Destroys your gateway container and volume, revokes your refresh tokens, cascades the deletion to subscriptions / BYOK keys / usage history / scheduled tasks. The only retained data is anonymized audit-log entries (user_id NULLed) so we can investigate security events.
What happens if I lose internet?
A banner shows up. Past chats remain readable offline (cached locally with iOS file protection). Sending a new message queues until reconnect. Voice input still works on-device.
Is there a free tier?
A 7-day free trial via Apple's standard StoreKit flow. After that it's $19.99/month, no auto-conversion gotchas — you confirm the subscription in the App Store paywall before the trial starts.
Do you train on my data?
No. We don't have a model to train. Your prompts are forwarded to whichever LLM provider you're routed through (DeepSeek by default, your BYOK provider if connected). Their data retention rules apply — DeepSeek's default is no-training on API traffic.
What about HealthKit / Calendar / Contacts access?
All optional. The agent only accesses these when you explicitly opt in via Settings → Privacy → Auto-attach device context. Without that opt-in, no HealthKit / Calendar / Location / Contacts data leaves your phone.
What does the iOS app look like?
A chat interface as the primary surface, with tabs for the agent control panel (Tasks / Memory / Plugins), your subscription, your profile, and settings. Live Activities show provisioning progress on Lock Screen. iOS-native everything — voice, Spotlight, Share Sheet, Siri shortcuts.
Why pay for AI when ChatGPT has a free tier?
If a chat box is all you need, use the free tier — honestly. OpenClaw is for the workflow where you want an agent that remembers, has tools, runs scheduled work, and acts on your data without re-explaining context every time. That requires real infra per user. Real infra costs money.