Companies are burning more AI tokens — and somehow spending less doing it.
On November 6, 2026, TechCrunch reported new Ramp data showing AI spending flatlined in late summer even as token volumes rose. Token spend grew only 1.5% across August and September, after growing 42% month over month in July.
Who drives the spend
Ramp lead economist Ara Kharazian told TechCrunch that almost all AI spend comes from venture-backed, high-growth tech companies. The top 1% of “AI-pilled” firms slipped slightly below the roughly $10,000 per-employee peak they hit in summer — enough, he said, to slow overall revenue even while volumes climb. Median firms spend about $12–$15 per employee per month; the top 10% spend $600–$1,000.
Cheaper models, thriftier buyers
Kharazian blamed competition, not fading demand. OpenAI cut API prices in half in September for GPT-6 Sol and GPT-6 Luna; Anthropic cut Fable 5.1 and Opus 5.5 pricing in a move it said in a filing cut revenue growth by about $600 million. Enterprises also get better at routers, budgets and defaults that keep long-running tasks off expensive models. Notion co-founder Akshay Kothari posted internal data that matched the pattern: tokens up, costs down.
October did see a re-acceleration — token spend up 8.9% from September 23 to October 23 — but Kharazian said headwinds remain. The same week, Bloomberg reported Anthropic’s potential IPO valuation talk cooled from about $2 trillion in early October toward roughly $1.2–$1.3 trillion, while OpenAI cut its own fundraising ambitions.
Why it matters
Usage up and revenue growth down rewrites AI sales narratives. Model vendors and AI SaaS firms should sell efficiency, routing and unit economics — not just token volume — to enterprise buyers.
High-tech B2B marketers can help clients flip the script: case studies that show more work per dollar will land better than raw “AI adoption” vanity metrics while IPO and funding books re-price.
Source: TechCrunch. Written by the xRapid Media LLP team.
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