Google bans Antigravity users over OpenClaw activity, cites surge in ‘malicious usage’

Several Gemini AI Ultra subscribers on the Google AI Developer Forum posted about not being able to access the Gemini 2.5 Pro model and in some cases, other linked services such as Gmail and Google Workspace.

Google restricted the accounts of several Antigravity users, including a few paid Ultra subscribers, who accessed its Gemini AI models through open-source AI agent OpenClaw, the search giant has partially confirmed.

Without explicitly naming OpenClaw, Varun Mohan, former Windsurf CEO and Google Deepmind engineer, said that the company has detected a “massive increase” in malicious activity on the backend of its AI coding platform Antigravity. “We’ve been seeing a massive increase in malicious usage of the Anitgravity backend that has tremendously degraded the quality of service for our users,” Mohan wrote in a post on X on Monday, February 23.

His remarks came a day after several Gemini AI Ultra subscribers on the Google AI Developer Forum posted about not being able to access the Gemini 2.5 Pro model and in some cases, other linked services such as Gmail and Google Workspace accounts. The abrupt action came without warning or explanation, they said. However, Mohan’s post on X makes it clearer that the restrictions may have been triggered by developers’ use of third-party tools such as OpenClaw as this is reportedly against Google’s terms of service.

Pretty draconian from Google. Be careful out there if you use Antigravity. I guess I’ll remove support.

Even Anthropic pings me and is nice about issues. Google just… bans? https://t.co/JBq9YCB7nB

— Peter Steinberger 🦞 (@steipete) February 23, 2026

“We needed to find a path to quickly shut off access to these users that are not using the product as intended. We understand that a subset of these users were not aware that this was against our ToS and will get a path for them to come back on but we have limited capacity and want to be fair to our actual users,” he added.

In a follow-up post a day later, Mohan clarified that users had only been blocked from accessing the Antigravity tool. “All your other Google services (and Google AI services) are unaffected. It is not intended to use the Antigravity backend as a proxy for other products and users in these groups have overwhelmed our compute. We are going to make sure we bring people back on but needed to act fast to make sure we deliver a good experience for people using the product,” he said.

Similar to Google, Anthropic updated its Consumer Terms of Service last week to explicitly ban OAuth token usage in third-party tools, including OpenClaw. “Using OAuth tokens obtained through Claude Free, Pro, or Max accounts in any other product, tool, or service, including the Agent SDK, is not permitted and constitutes a violation of the Consumer Terms of Service,” the updated compliance page states.

The move underscores the growing turf war in the AI race and signals a shift toward more closed, tightly controlled ecosystems. It also highlights the various challenges that come with AI agents such as OpenClaw, which is billed as an AI assistant that can stay on top of emails, deal with insurers, check in for flights and perform myriad other tasks.

Calling it a draconian move, Peter Steinberger, the creator of the open-source AI agent framework, said, “Be careful out there if you use Antigravity. I guess I’ll remove support. Even Anthropic pings me and is nice about issues. Google just… bans?”

Earlier this month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced that Steinberger will be joining the ChatGPT-maker to “drive the next generation of personal agents.” “OpenClaw will live in a foundation as an open source project that OpenAI will continue to support,” he added.

Pretty draconian from Google. Be careful out there if you use Antigravity. I guess I’ll remove support.

Even Anthropic pings me and is nice about issues. Google just… bans? https://t.co/JBq9YCB7nB

— Peter Steinberger 🦞 (@steipete) February 23, 2026

OpenClaw has had a viral rise since it was first introduced in November 2025, receiving more than 1,00,000 stars on code repository GitHub and drawing two million visitors in a single week, according to a blog post by Steinberger.

However, agentic AI tools such as OpenClaw have also attracted scrutiny, with China’s industry ministry recently warning that the open-source AI agent could pose significant security risks when improperly configured and expose users to cyberattacks and data breaches.

Google restricted the accounts of several Antigravity users, including a few paid Ultra subscribers, who accessed its Gemini AI models through open-source AI agent OpenClaw, the search giant has partially confirmed.

Without explicitly naming OpenClaw, Varun Mohan, former Windsurf CEO and Google Deepmind engineer, said that the company has detected a “massive increase” in malicious activity on the backend of its AI coding platform Antigravity. “We’ve been seeing a massive increase in malicious usage of the Anitgravity backend that has tremendously degraded the quality of service for our users,” Mohan wrote in a post on X on Monday, February 23.

His remarks came a day after several Gemini AI Ultra subscribers on the Google AI Developer Forum posted about not being able to access the Gemini 2.5 Pro model and in some cases, other linked services such as Gmail and Google Workspace accounts. The abrupt action came without warning or explanation, they said. However, Mohan’s post on X makes it clearer that the restrictions may have been triggered by developers’ use of third-party tools such as OpenClaw as this is reportedly against Google’s terms of service.

Pretty draconian from Google. Be careful out there if you use Antigravity. I guess I’ll remove support.

Even Anthropic pings me and is nice about issues. Google just… bans? https://t.co/JBq9YCB7nB

— Peter Steinberger 🦞 (@steipete) February 23, 2026

“We needed to find a path to quickly shut off access to these users that are not using the product as intended. We understand that a subset of these users were not aware that this was against our ToS and will get a path for them to come back on but we have limited capacity and want to be fair to our actual users,” he added.

In a follow-up post a day later, Mohan clarified that users had only been blocked from accessing the Antigravity tool. “All your other Google services (and Google AI services) are unaffected. It is not intended to use the Antigravity backend as a proxy for other products and users in these groups have overwhelmed our compute. We are going to make sure we bring people back on but needed to act fast to make sure we deliver a good experience for people using the product,” he said.

Similar to Google, Anthropic updated its Consumer Terms of Service last week to explicitly ban OAuth token usage in third-party tools, including OpenClaw. “Using OAuth tokens obtained through Claude Free, Pro, or Max accounts in any other product, tool, or service, including the Agent SDK, is not permitted and constitutes a violation of the Consumer Terms of Service,” the updated compliance page states.

The move underscores the growing turf war in the AI race and signals a shift toward more closed, tightly controlled ecosystems. It also highlights the various challenges that come with AI agents such as OpenClaw, which is billed as an AI assistant that can stay on top of emails, deal with insurers, check in for flights and perform myriad other tasks.

Calling it a draconian move, Peter Steinberger, the creator of the open-source AI agent framework, said, “Be careful out there if you use Antigravity. I guess I’ll remove support. Even Anthropic pings me and is nice about issues. Google just… bans?”

Earlier this month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced that Steinberger will be joining the ChatGPT-maker to “drive the next generation of personal agents.” “OpenClaw will live in a foundation as an open source project that OpenAI will continue to support,” he added.

Pretty draconian from Google. Be careful out there if you use Antigravity. I guess I’ll remove support.

Even Anthropic pings me and is nice about issues. Google just… bans? https://t.co/JBq9YCB7nB

— Peter Steinberger 🦞 (@steipete) February 23, 2026

OpenClaw has had a viral rise since it was first introduced in November 2025, receiving more than 1,00,000 stars on code repository GitHub and drawing two million visitors in a single week, according to a blog post by Steinberger.

However, agentic AI tools such as OpenClaw have also attracted scrutiny, with China’s industry ministry recently warning that the open-source AI agent could pose significant security risks when improperly configured and expose users to cyberattacks and data breaches.