How to Install OpenClaw on Mac or Linux (2026 Beginner's Guide)

If you've heard about OpenClaw — the open-source AI assistant that runs on your own machine — and you want to try it, this guide is for you. We'll walk through the entire process in plain language. No prior coding experience needed. Just patience and about 20 minutes.

What is OpenClaw, in one paragraph

OpenClaw is a personal AI assistant that lives on your computer — not in the cloud. You talk to it through apps you already use (WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, or its own browser interface), and it can do real things: read and write files, browse the web, manage your calendar, run code, and much more. Unlike ChatGPT or Claude.ai, nothing is stored on someone else's server. Your data stays on your machine.

If you want the full backstory of how it went from a weekend hack to 100,000 GitHub stars, we covered that here.

What you'll need before you start

You don't need to be a developer, but you will need:

• A Mac running macOS 12 or later, or a Linux machine (Ubuntu, Debian, or similar)
• An Anthropic API key — this is what connects OpenClaw to Claude, the AI model it uses by default. You get one by signing up at console.anthropic.com. It costs nothing to sign up; you pay only for what you use.
• About $5–10 pre-loaded on your Anthropic account to start (more on costs below)
• A terminal app — on Mac, that's the built-in Terminal (search for it in Spotlight with ⌘+Space)

Step 1 — Get your Anthropic API key

1. Go to console.anthropic.com and create an account
2. Add a payment method and load at least $5 in credits
3. Navigate to API Keys in the left sidebar
4. Click Create Key, give it a name like "OpenClaw", and copy the key

Your key will look something like this: sk-ant-api03-...

Keep it somewhere safe — like a password manager. You won't be able to see it again after you close that page.

Step 2 — Open Terminal

On Mac: Press ⌘ + Space, type "Terminal", and press Enter.

On Linux: Look for a Terminal app in your applications menu, or press Ctrl + Alt + T.

You'll see a window with a blinking cursor and some text. This is the command line. Don't be intimidated — you're just going to paste a few things in.

Step 3 — Run the installer

Copy and paste this single line into your Terminal, then press Enter:

curl -fsSL https://install.openclaw.ai | bash

The installer will:

• Check if Node.js is installed (and install it if not)
• Download and install OpenClaw
• Launch an onboarding wizard that walks you through the rest

This takes 2–5 minutes depending on your internet speed. You'll see progress messages as it runs. If it asks for your password, that's just your Mac or Linux login password — it needs it to install software.

Step 4 — Complete the onboarding wizard

Once the installer finishes, the onboarding wizard will start automatically in your terminal. It will ask you a few questions:

Choose Quickstart when prompted for setup mode. It's the simpler path and you can adjust everything later.

Select your AI provider: Choose Anthropic.

Enter your API key: Paste the key you copied in Step 1.

Choose your default model: For most people, Claude Sonnet (currently claude-sonnet-4-6) is the right choice. It's fast, capable, and meaningfully cheaper than Opus. You can always change this later.

Install as a background service: Say yes to this. It means OpenClaw will start automatically when your computer starts up, making it genuinely useful as a persistent assistant — not something you have to launch manually every time.

When the wizard finishes, it will open OpenClaw's Control UI in your browser at http://localhost:3000. This is your main dashboard.

Step 5 — Fix the security setting nobody tells you about

Before you do anything else, do this. It takes 30 seconds and prevents your OpenClaw interface from being accessible to other devices on your local network.

OpenClaw defaults to binding its web interface to 0.0.0.0, which means any device on your Wi-Fi can potentially reach it. You want to lock it to your machine only.

Find and open the OpenClaw config file. In Terminal, type:

open ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json

This opens the file in your text editor. Look for a section that says "gateway" and change the "bind" value to "loopback":

{
  "gateway": {
    "bind": "loopback",
    "port": 3000
  }
}

Save the file, then restart OpenClaw from the Control UI (Settings → Restart). That's it — your interface is now private to your machine.

Step 6 — Connect a messaging channel (optional but useful)

OpenClaw becomes dramatically more useful when you can message it from your phone. The easiest channel to set up is Telegram:

1. Create a Telegram bot at t.me/BotFather — type /newbot, give it a name, and copy the token it gives you
2. In the OpenClaw Control UI, go to Channels → Add Channel → Telegram
3. Paste your bot token and save

Now you can send messages to your bot from any device and OpenClaw will respond — from your own machine, using your own data.

Step 7 — Install a skill or two

Skills are what give OpenClaw its superpowers. Think of them like apps — each one adds a capability.

In the Control UI, navigate to Skills → Browse ClawHub. Some good ones to start with:

• Web Browser — lets OpenClaw search the web and fill forms
• File Manager — gives it access to your files (you choose which folders)
• Calendar — connects to your Google Calendar

Understanding the cost

OpenClaw isn't free to run — it uses the Anthropic API to power Claude, and that costs real money. Here's how to think about it:

Regular chatting on Claude.ai costs nothing (on the free plan) because Anthropic subsidizes it. When you use the API directly, you pay per token — roughly per word, in and out.

The important thing to understand is that AI agents use more tokens than conversations. When OpenClaw does a task, it often makes 5–10 API calls behind the scenes, and each one re-sends your conversation history. A busy afternoon of tasks can add up.

A realistic estimate for moderate personal use: $3–15 per month. Heavy power users report $30–50+.

Three habits that keep costs under control:

• Start a new session regularly — old conversation context gets re-sent on every message. A fresh session costs far less.
• Use Sonnet, not Opus — Opus is about 1.7× more expensive for the same workload. Only switch to Opus for tasks that genuinely need it.
• Set a spending limit — in your Anthropic console, you can set a monthly cap. Set it to $20 to start and you'll never get a surprise bill.

Verify everything is working

Run this command in Terminal to confirm OpenClaw is healthy:

openclaw doctor

It checks your installation, configuration, and connection to the AI model. You should see all green checkmarks. If anything is red, the output will tell you what to fix — and the OpenClaw docs have a troubleshooting section for every common error.

What to try first

Once you're set up, the best way to learn is to give OpenClaw a simple, low-stakes task:

• "Summarize the last 5 emails in my inbox" (if you've connected email)
• "Search the web for the best free task manager apps and give me a comparison"
• "Create a text file on my desktop with today's date and a to-do list"

Start small. Get comfortable with how it responds and what it can access. Then expand from there.

A note on the project's future

In February 2026, Peter Steinberger — OpenClaw's founder — joined OpenAI. This raised understandable questions about the project's trajectory. The community has continued developing it actively since then, with new maintainers in place and ongoing commits. OpenClaw remains fully open source. Nothing about your installation is affected by this change.

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If you'd rather have OpenClaw set up and configured by someone who does this every week — with security hardening, custom skills, and a private server deployment — our team handles that. No terminal required on your end.