MaxClaw Guide (Free Openclaw with Minimax 2.5)

Minimax quietly shipped MaxClaw — a hosted OpenClaw with a Minimax 2.5 agent, sign-up is a Google login and the install is literally click–click–done.

## Cost and onboarding The account starts free with a welcome credit (a quoted "1,000+ plus a daily free" allowance) and a one-click "Continue with Google" flow. Compare that to Kimi Claw, which the creator says charged him "$40" and is "only available on the Allegretto plan." He frames MaxClaw as the cheap on-ramp — "if you're a minor usage user and you just want to test things out, this is actually a pretty good way to start."

## The catch with an existing plan If you already pay for a Minimax coding plan, do not expect MaxClaw to recognize it. The creator tried pasting his own key in and the bot stopped replying: "it asked it said, 'Uh, you can, but when I input the key in, my bot wouldn't respond to me.'" His read: "I'm pretty sure they've rushed this product to market."

## Specialization presets Unlike Kimi Claw, MaxClaw ships with prebuilt agent roles — he demos "Topic Tracker" and points to built-in Telegram / BotFather integration, plus an export button for SOUL.md, HEARTBEAT.md, and MEMORY.md so you can migrate later.

## Model quality On intelligence, Minimax markets itself as "95% of top tier models like Opus." After two to three weeks of use the creator puts it at "75–80% of what Opus is offering." Concrete failure: asked whether to drive or walk to a car wash, Minimax 2.5 "sometimes still said to walk."

## Long-term recommendation Use MaxClaw for a starter pack, not production. For real use, self-host OpenClaw on a $3 VPS — that setup also gives you a public URL for generated presentations, which the hosted tier does not match.