OpenAI is planning substantial price cuts for its AI token usage fees in an effort to lure customers away from rival Anthropic, according to industry reports today [1, 2]. The token is the main unit used for measuring and billing AI computational usage by both companies [1, 3]. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently acknowledged that the costs of AI usage, especially token expenses, have become a "very big issue" for users and businesses, saying, "I think we have many ways to help users get more value for less cost" [3, 4].
Anthropic has seen rapid revenue growth, with a forecasted $10.9 billion in Q2 2026 revenue — a 130% increase year-over-year — and an operating profit of $559 million, surpassing OpenAI's Q1 2026 revenue estimate of about $6 billion, which remains unprofitable [5]. The surge is partly driven by the popularity of Anthropic's Claude Code programming tool, favored among software engineers, boosting sales [6, 2]. OpenAI is responding by pushing its Codex tool to challenge Claude Code's footprint [4].
Both companies currently operate at losses due to the high costs of AI computations, raising concerns that deep price cuts might further affect profitability [3, 2]. Still, OpenAI's subscription tiers for GPT-5.5 range from $8 to over $100 monthly, while Anthropic charges $17 for Claude Pro and over $100 for Claude Max [7]. A Chinese competitor, DeepSeek, intensified price pressure by permanently cutting API prices by 75% last month, driving down market rates [5].
Heavy AI token consumption, referred to as "tokenmaxxing," has led some enterprises to exhaust budgets early in the year, increasing demand for cheaper access [8, 4]. OpenAI expects that Anthropic will respond with similar token price reductions, potentially triggering a price war in AI model usage fees [1, 6].
Amid the intensifying competition, both OpenAI and Anthropic filed confidentially for initial public offerings in 2026, signaling ambitions to expand capital and market share [7, 6, 2]. With pricing discussions progressing, the AI industry anticipates concrete announcements on token fees soon.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman summed up the company's focus on affordability by stating, "I think we’ll have a lot of ways we can help people get more value for less spend" [4].
