OPENAI
Pricing the spreadsheet
OpenAI is reportedly considering major price cuts as competition with Anthropic gets sharper.
The company is looking at lowering token prices, according to people familiar with the matter.
Tokens are what AI firms use to charge customers for using their models.
The move comes as OpenAI expects Anthropic may also cut prices.
For businesses, AI bills are becoming harder to ignore.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently said costs had become “a huge issue,” adding that the company wants to help users get more value for less money.
That would be great for customers, but less cheerful for AI companies already spending billions on the computing power needed to run their systems.
OpenAI is also trying to gain ground on Anthropic in the enterprise market.
Anthropic has grown quickly after Claude Code became popular with software engineers, while OpenAI has been pushing its own coding tool, Codex.
The main takeaway:
OpenAI may cut token prices as competition with Anthropic grows.
Lower prices could help businesses manage rising AI costs.
Investors are watching closely to see whether AI usage can turn into lasting profits.
IPO nerves rise
Some companies are now questioning whether heavy AI use is worth the cost.
Uber executives have reportedly said the company had already used up its 2026 budget for agentic AI, while others are asking whether AI coding gains are actually leading to better customer features.
This has fuelled debate around “tokenmaxxing”, the habit of using as many AI tokens as possible to boost productivity.
Useful? Sometimes. Expensive? Very much yes.
A price war would test both companies’ business models as they move closer to public listings.
OpenAI has reportedly filed confidentially for an IPO, following Anthropic’s own steps towards going public.
The funniest part of the AI boom is watching billion-dollar labs discover that CFOs are the final boss.- MG