Anthropic ends discounts once tokens run out, The Information reports

Anthropic ends enterprise customers’ discounts once they use up the tokens covered by their contracts, The Information reported on Monday. OpenAI takes a more flexible approach, the report said.

Kevin McLaughlin of The Information spoke to software company managers who buy from both AI companies. When Anthropic customers hit their contracted token volume, they must renegotiate or pay standard rates, the managers said. Tokens are the units AI companies use to bill for text their models read and write.

The managers put Anthropic’s discounts at about 15% off list price. TNW has not independently verified the report.

OpenAI gives customers extra time

A software licensing adviser who knows both companies told The Information that OpenAI is more lenient. It gives customers the rest of the current month plus one more month to agree a new contract. After that, list prices apply.

Cloud providers work differently. Amazon, Microsoft and Google usually let customers keep their discount on usage above their commitment for the rest of the contract, Jeff Muscarella, chief innovation officer at NPIFinancial, told The Information.

Frederick Philipson, co-founder of Redress Compliance, told The Information that OpenAI is now more aggressive than Anthropic on discounts as it focuses on enterprise sales. OpenAI hired its first worldwide sales chief this month.

One customer switched

CodeRabbit chief executive Harjot Gill told The Information that OpenAI is now his company’s main AI supplier. Six months ago it was Anthropic. The three-year-old company spends tens of millions of dollars a year on AI, he said.

Gill and another manager said both companies have started adding “share of wallet” clauses to discount deals. These require large customers to send most of their AI budget to one platform.

More than 100 companies spent over $10m a year with Anthropic in the 12 months to June, and more than 1,000 spent over $1m, according to the report. Its major customers include Meta and Cursor.

Anthropic’s revenue passed OpenAI’s for the first time last quarter. Both companies have also cut list prices in recent weeks, with a cheaper Opus model from Anthropic and halved GPT-6 prices from OpenAI.

Published September 28, 2026 - 7:07 pm UTC

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