Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
AI tokens are cheaper than ever. So why are companies suddenly panicking about how much they’re spending on AI? Over the past year, companies pushed employees to use AI as much as possible. Engineers got access to tools like Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, and a growing list of AI agents. Some companies even turned usage into a goal. The result was a wave of “tokenmaxxing,” where more AI use was treated like more progress. But that did not always happen. Uber blew through its AI budget in 4 months. Meta workers reportedly used tens of trillions of tokens in a month. Amazon had an internal AI leaderboard that employees started gaming. And across the industry, companies are realizing that more tokens does not always mean better work. The weird part is that token prices have dropped a lot since 2023. But AI tools now think longer, loop through more steps, reread more context, and handle more complex tasks. That means usage can explode even when each token gets cheaper. This is the strange economics of AI right now. Cheaper tokens created more demand. More demand created higher bills. And now the entire AI market is shifting from simple subscriptions to usage-based pricing.
Timestamps:
0:00 - AI Bubble
0:52 - Tokenmaxxing
6:23 - Over Reasoning
12:01 - The Token Market
Sources: pastebin.com/gpXKt5vB
AI tokens are cheaper than ever. So why are companies suddenly panicking about how much they’re spending on AI? Over the past year, companies pushed employees to use AI as much as possible. Engineers got access to tools like Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, and a growing list of AI agents. Some companies even turned usage into a goal. The result was a wave of “tokenmaxxing,” where more AI use was treated like more progress. But that did not always happen. Uber blew through its AI budget in 4 months. Meta workers reportedly used tens of trillions of tokens in a month. Amazon had an internal AI leaderboard that employees started gaming. And across the industry, companies are realizing that more tokens does not always mean better work. The weird part is that token prices have dropped a lot since 2023. But AI tools now think longer, loop through more steps, reread more context, and handle more complex tasks. That means usage can explode even when each token gets cheaper. This is the strange economics of AI right now. Cheaper tokens created more demand. More demand created higher bills. And now the entire AI market is shifting from simple subscriptions to usage-based pricing.
Timestamps:
0:00 - AI Bubble
0:52 - Tokenmaxxing
6:23 - Over Reasoning
12:01 - The Token Market
Sources: pastebin.com/gpXKt5vB
