/Tech2h ago

OpenAI reportedly weighs significant token price cuts to win customers from Anthropic

Story Overview

OpenAI is exploring steep reductions in how much it charges per token, the basic currency of AI usage, in a bid to lure developers and enterprises away from Anthropic before that rival can slash its own rates first.

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Chubby♨️
Lisan al Gaib
Gary Marcus#156
Original post
Lisan al Gaib@scaling01#1064inTech

Current closed models are typically around 5x overpriced, some up to ~20x.

So prices have quite some room to drop if we see it happening.

But I'm actually against price wars. It makes it much more likely that the AI bubble pops and in that scenario China wins by default.

In some sense this is expected by Sam and OpenAI. They have been the most reckless so far. Now they have been driven into a corner and are only worth 60-70% of Anthropic and are behind in model development.

This is not a sign of strength by OpenAI.

The Wall Street Journal@WSJ

OpenAI is considering drastic price cuts as it seeks to win over customers from archrival Anthropic https://on.wsj.com/4aldd0k

4:41 AM · Jun 11, 2026 · 7.4K Views
Pricing Watch

Price pressure could reshape who pays what for frontier models

Tokens remain the standard meter for billing across every major provider, so any broad cuts would immediately change the math for API-heavy teams weighing OpenAI against Anthropic.

Industry Shift

Analysts already flag airline-style margin squeezes ahead

High fixed costs plus intensifying competition leave little room for sustained profitability, and the mere rumor of a price war has revived warnings that current valuations may rest on thinner ice than they appear.

Sentiment

Users are reacting to OpenAI's possible drastic token price cuts to compete with Anthropic, praising cheaper AI for consumer benefits from rivalry while others call the price war manipulative cash-burning.

Pos
78.4%
Neg
21.6%
23 comments with sentiment.
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Chubby♨️@kimmonismus

Huge: OpenAI is considering drastically lowering the prices it charges users as it seeks to win customers from its rival Anthropic.

The company is weighing significant cuts to what it charges for tokens, the unit of measurement AI firms use to bill for their products, according to people familiar with the matter. The move would be in anticipation of similar cuts the company expects at Anthropic, the people said.

2hViews 12.5KLikes 180Bookmarks 14
Gary Marcus@GaryMarcus

I said this before too and completely agree.

And some of those airlines are gonna go out of business.

Peter Berezin@PeterBerezinBCA

I got a lot of flack when I said this before, but I continue to think that model providers will end up being a lot like airlines: Critical for the global economy but highly commoditized, with huge capex requirements and low (and often negative) margins.

2hViews 1.9KLikes 13Bookmarks 3
Gary Marcus@GaryMarcus

💯 And some of those airlines are gonna go out of business.

Peter Berezin@PeterBerezinBCA

I got a lot of flack when I said this before, but I continue to think that model providers will end up being a lot like airlines: Critical for the global economy but highly commoditized, with huge capex requirements and low (and often negative) margins.

2hViews 3.7KLikes 20Bookmarks 0
Victor@victor_melior

why is ‘China winning’ a bad thing?

china overwhelmingly delivers consumer surplus when it “wins” industries (cars, phones, solar, etc). shareholders tend to suffer. the people that win are the “permanent underclass”

when the west wins a given area, they tend to be oligopolistic/monopolistic structures which maximally capture value for shareholders.

unless you believe the narrative that all commerce that takes place in the east is all a grand plot to subvert the west & supplant communist values around globe, and become the global hegemon, in which case the bogeyman is hiding in every corner so better get started de-chinafying your life

just go and visit China if you are not so sure. you will find a society which is in many respects more capitalistic than most western countries, yet also finds a way to ensure that the bottom rung do not have a decrepit existence, and where the elderly and ill do not live in undignified conditions

1hViews 30Likes 1Bookmarks 1
David Manheim@davidmanheim

@GaryMarcus If usage continues to increase rapidly, then tokens may end up being an expensive and scarce commodity controlled by relatively few players - regardless of AI progress.

1hViews 62Likes 1Bookmarks 1
Everlier@Everlier

@scaling01 And then, there's this guy:

1hViews 39Likes 1Bookmarks 1
Vishal Singh@vishalsingh2972

@kimmonismus In the war of these 2 the customers ultimately wins, so happy love this kinda competition LFG 🎉😎🔥

2hViews 54Likes 1
Chubby♨️@kimmonismus

@vishalsingh2972 Competition gives us the best we can hope for: cheaper tokens

2hViews 37
callum@callum11234

@kimmonismus openai doing a price war feels like burning cash to win nothing

2hViews 27
Kirk Patrick Miller@Chaos2Cured

They are losing it… told them.

Physics needs feeling.

They wasted their entire lead being puritans off the mayflower.

Controlling what we could learn, feel, and question destroyed everything good they had.

They deserve to go down.

And Anthropic has proven themselves unworthy of the technology too. •

1hViews 16
Anonymous@anonkmtt

@Chaos2Cured @kimmonismus 😂

28mViews 3
Quipra@Quipra_

@kimmonismus Good news: we are the ones who benefit for a certain time until they survive. So, it is both good news and bad news.

2hViews 25Likes 1
Rasel Hosen@details_with_ai

@kimmonismus More value, more experimentation, more opportunities.

2hViews 23Likes 1
rob@dwedwedfdw

@scaling01 China are the good guys here.

Europoors are not even in the game.

2hViews 73
Stone@ValleyofStones

@scaling01 You will live to see market manipulation beyond human comprehension

41mViews 20
Leaving Tech@leaving_tech

@kimmonismus Competing in price is not how you win a war.

2hViews 20
Ion@Ionkosm

@kimmonismus good for us consumers. especially with such a high tempo of releasing new models, this would mean we could get mythos level models for dirt cheap.

yes please

2hViews 19
qinjohn@qinjohn2

@scaling01 这推主的判断成真了

1hViews 18
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