Ramp: AI Spend Flatlined Even as Usage Climbed
Original: Ramp data shows AI spending stalling just as Anthropic nears its IPO
Why This Matters
Spending plateaus amid price wars raise real questions about AI revenue sustainability at scale.
Ramp's spending data shows AI token spend grew just 1.5% across August–September 2026, down sharply from 42% in July, as price cuts from OpenAI and Anthropic compress revenue despite rising usage volumes.
Corporate AI spending hit a wall over the summer, according to new data from fintech firm Ramp — and the timing is awkward for Anthropic, which is approaching an IPO. Token spend grew only 1.5% across August and September, compared to 42% month-over-month growth in July. Volume is up; revenue is not.
Ramp's lead economist Ara Kharazian points to two forces. First, the top 1% of AI-heavy firms — the so-called 'AI-pilled' cohort — dipped just below their summer peak of $10,000 per employee per month. Because that group drives a disproportionate share of total spend, any stutter there drags overall numbers. Second, price cuts are doing real damage to revenue. OpenAI halved API prices for GPT-6 Sol and GPT-6 Luna in September; Anthropic followed with cuts to Fable 5.1 and Opus 5.5 that the company acknowledged in a regulatory filing reduced revenue growth by roughly $600 million.
Median firms spend just $12–$15 per employee per month. The top 10% land between $600 and $1,000. Kharazian is skeptical that sectors beyond software and finance will ever close that gap. 'It's not necessarily true that a doctor's office or a car dealership will need to spend that much on AI,' he said. October showed some recovery — token spend rose 8.9% between September 23 and October 23 — but Kharazian called the headwinds 'strong' and noted that nearly all AI spend originates from venture-backed tech firms, making a simultaneous slowdown across that cohort a systemic risk.