Genspark Claw: Cloud vs Local Setup, Credits and Safe Defaults

Genspark Claw is Genspark's AI employee: an agent that keeps working on its own, either on an always-on Genspark cloud computer or on your own Mac or Windows PC through the desktop app. What it costs depends on that choice. The cloud version needs a separate Cloud Computer subscription, a flat monthly fee whose price Genspark's help center does not print ^[1]. Local mode needs no subscription at all, only a Genspark account and credits. In both modes, every message, tool call, scheduled run and Heartbeat check-in draws on the same credit wallet as the rest of Genspark. Frequency drives the bill. Start small.

Step one: pick a home for Claw, the cloud or your own desk

The cloud mode runs on a Genspark Cloud Computer that stays on whether or not your laptop does. You choose one of three tiers, and the only thing Genspark prints for them is the hardware. The Cloud Computer is the runtime; Claw's messages, tool calls, scheduled runs and Heartbeat check-ins still spend credits on top of it ^[2]. This is also not the machine New Super Agent starts for each project. That one is a temporary per-project sandbox, separate from the Claw subscription, and once it is recycled its conversation cannot continue.

The subscription is a flat monthly fee covering CPU, memory, storage and a fixed IP address, and an idle cloud computer consumes no credits. That last point matters for planning. The machine is the steady line on your bill; what moves is the work you ask of it. The tier choice is about headroom: Standard doubles the memory of Lite on the same two processors and the same storage, while Powerful doubles processors, memory and storage again. The fixed IP and the storage come with every tier.

Local mode runs Claw through the desktop app for macOS or Windows, with no subscription and only a Genspark account and credits. The trade-off is uptime. Claw works only while the computer is on and the app is open, so overnight work depends on the machine staying awake. Local mode also reaches your file system, and the workspace folder you point it at is soft guidance, not a hard boundary. Treat that as a security decision. Run local Claw on a machine or user account that holds nothing you would not hand to a new assistant on day one.

Step two: budget credits before you switch on schedules

Claw has no wallet of its own. Credits come out of the single balance your whole Genspark account shares, the same one that pays for Super Agent, slides and images. The help center lists what spends them: every message and tool call, each scheduled task run, each Heartbeat check-in, setup tasks, and any image or video Claw generates. Genspark's own example shows why cadence matters more than the task itself. A job costing 10 credits, run daily, adds up to 300 credits a month; the same job run hourly comes to 7,200 credits a month.

Heartbeat deserves its own decision. It is a toggle that lets Claw check in on its own, at intervals, on your inbox, calendar and connected services. With it off, Claw answers only when you start a conversation. Genspark's troubleshooting guide names Claw schedules and Heartbeat among the usual reasons a balance drains faster than expected. When credits run out, Claw's chat and its scheduled tasks pause. Credits also follow the account's wider rules: monthly credits do not roll over, and a text job shows its cost only after it runs, as our Genspark pricing guide explains.

A practical order follows from those rules. Run a task by hand first, then read what it spent in your credit history at /credit-usage before putting it on a schedule. The log can lag a few hours, so give it time. Only then multiply by the cadence you want, the way Genspark's own example does. Cadence is the real lever. A morning summary and an hourly inbox sweep are different budget lines, and a Heartbeat that watches several services adds check-ins of its own on top of both.

Step three: connect channels and accounts without opening the door

Claw talks to you through chat channels: WhatsApp, Telegram, LINE, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Discord, Signal, Google Chat and Feishu or Lark. Each channel keeps its own conversation, but long-term memory is shared across all of them, so a preference you state in Slack can shape a reply in Telegram. When you connect a channel, direct messages default to Pairing Mode. Keep it that way. Switch to an open DM policy and anyone who knows the address can prompt Claw to act. Group chats carry a related risk: Claw can join external groups, and other members there can prompt it to reveal personal data.

For work accounts, Claw signs in to services through a browser session saved on the cloud computer. Genspark lists Gmail, Outlook, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, GitHub, Slack, Notion, HubSpot, Salesforce, Stripe, Zoom and Jira. The safeguard is built in: external actions such as sending emails or posting messages require your permission. Salesforce gets one OAuth connection shared by Claw, Super Agent, Workflow Builder and AgentBase, and Claw goes furthest with it. It can run Salesforce CLI metadata commands in a managed sandbox, while Workflow Builder and AgentBase cannot reach org metadata or admin configuration.

Email has one practical catch. Claw sends from the genspark.email domain, and those messages may land in spam. If Claw will write to clients or partners, set up a custom domain from the Home tab before its first outbound message. That single step separates a useful assistant from one whose follow-ups nobody reads. Permission prompts still apply after the switch, because the domain changes where mail comes from, not who approves it.

Step four: decide what Claw keeps, and what you can lose

Claw remembers across channels, but long conversations are compressed automatically, and details can blur in the process. Genspark's advice is to save important preferences with an explicit request to remember them: your sign-off, the clients it may contact, the hours you want left quiet. Chat history itself cannot be shared or exported directly. If a thread holds a decision you will need later, ask Claw to write a summary into a document and keep that instead. Results you want to show someone else go out through share links, covered in the questions below.

Data on the cloud computer is not forgiving. Deleting the computer permanently erases conversation history, memory, files and saved credentials. Canceling the subscription takes effect at the end of the billing period; the computer is then reclaimed and all of its data deleted. Save the summaries and files you need first. Refunds for a Cloud Computer bought on the web follow the Plus and Pro rule: once per customer across all of them, and a 72-hour window from each charge for US buyers, as long as less than half the subscription or quota is used; past that point Genspark may decline and offer credits instead. Store purchases are refunded through the store, as the Genspark pricing guide sets out.

Claw next to Super Agent, Workflows and GenTeam

Genspark gives you several ways to hand off work, and they overlap less than the names suggest. Super Agent takes one job, plans the steps and returns files, and in New Super Agent mode each project runs on its own cloud computer for up to 2 hours; it cannot run scheduled jobs. Workflows cover recurring work described in plain language, triggered on a schedule or by an incoming Gmail or Outlook email, with one trigger per workflow, and a Test Run is a real run that sends mail and spends credits. Claw is the standing assistant: reachable from your chat apps, watching through Heartbeat. Our Genspark AI playbook covers the first two in depth.

GenTeam is where the lines have moved. New agents on a Genspark Claw computer can no longer be created from GenTeam, though agents connected earlier keep working. GenTeam remains the place for cloud agents that share group chats with colleagues. For a business, Claw's ownership model is strict: each Claw belongs to one person with its own isolated cloud computer, Team plans buy Claw seats, and there is no shared Claw workspace. A team of five that wants Claw for everyone is buying five separate assistants on five isolated computers, not one shared helper.

Cloud or local: the choice that sets your Claw bill

Pick local mode if you want to learn what Claw does for you before paying for anything beyond credits, and accept that it stops when your computer is off or the app is closed. Pick the cloud when Claw must answer in Slack at 6 a.m. or run schedules unattended, knowing its subscription price is not printed in Genspark's help center. Manus, by contrast, publishes its cloud computer prices; its Linux Advanced cloud computer is a separate $50-a-month add-on with 2 vCPU, 8 GB memory and 120 GB storage. Either way, the cadence of schedules and Heartbeat, not the tier, decides how fast credits go.