Business and economy·June 11, 2026, 17:44

OpenAI considers big price cuts for AI access as pressure mounts on Anthropic

AI-generated from the sources listed, with automated source checks.

According to the Wall Street Journal, OpenAI is considering sharply lowering its token prices. The move comes as OpenAI and Anthropic compete for business customers and both head toward the public markets.

OpenAI is considering major cuts to the price of its tokens, the Wall Street Journal reported around June 10-11, 2026. According to the report, discussions were still evolving, and the sources do not say how large the cuts could be or whether they will go ahead.

A token is a small chunk of text that an AI model reads or writes. Companies that build AI into their own systems typically pay per million tokens. Lower prices could therefore eventually mean cheaper AI solutions for those who use the technology.

The race for business customers

OpenAI expects Anthropic, the company behind Claude, to make similar price cuts, according to the report.

The two companies are close in valuation. According to Implicator.ai, Anthropic is valued at $965 billion and OpenAI at $852 billion. Anthropic closed its Series H funding round on May 28, and OpenAI confidentially filed for an IPO on June 8.

Anthropic's annual run rate (current revenue extrapolated to a full year) was roughly $30 billion in April. Analyst estimates put it at around $47 billion in May. These are estimates, not financial results.

Implicator.ai assesses that the products are so interchangeable that customers can switch with little difficulty. According to the source, that makes price competition harmful to profitability ahead of the IPOs.

Anthropic's prices

On June 30, 2026, Anthropic launched Claude Sonnet 5 with an introductory price of $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens. The price applied through August 31, 2026. The standard price is $3 and $15. According to Anthropic, as relayed by Let's Data Science, the introductory price is meant to make the transition roughly cost-neutral despite changes to the tokenizer, the component that splits text into tokens.

Anthropic's own pricing page currently lists these API prices per million tokens (input/output): Fable 5.1 costs $10/$50, Opus 5.5 $4/$20, Sonnet 5.5 $2/$10 and Haiku 5.5 $0.10-$0.50/$0.50-$2.50.

For individual and smaller users, Anthropic's subscriptions cost $20 a month for Pro ($17 with annual billing), $100 for Max and $200 for Ultra.