My startup accidentally spent $30,000 on AI tokens in a month. It was worth it to move fast — but we found a simple fix.

Tech Insider : Business, Economy
Two tech employees working at a desk
In April, cofounder Sarthak Dhawan's token use jumped from $20,000 to $30,000.

ATHVisions/Getty Images

This new research challenges nearly every big AI narrative of 2026

Tech Insider : Business, Technology
Sarah Friar speaks during a conference in New York
OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar leads one of the most popular AI companies among chief information officers, said RBC.

Mike Segar/Reuters

Are you a consultant? Tell us how much you're spending on AI these days.

Tech Insider : Business, Technology
A consultant in an orange blazer uses a laptop while holding a clipboard at a desk.
Many companies, and the consulting firms advising them, are reevaluating how much the spend on AI.

Getty Images; BI

What smart people are saying about rising AI costs

Tech Insider : Business
A composite photo of Sam Altman, Andrew Macdonald, and Sundar Pichai
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Google CEO Sundar Pichai have said they are hearing a lot from companies about rising AI costs. Uber COO Andrew Macdonald recently gave voice to those concerns.

Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg; Sam Barnes/Sportsfile for Collision; and Benjamin Fanjoy via Getty Images

Tokenmaxxing is entering its efficiency-maxxing era

Tech Insider : Business, Technology
A laptop with Claude Code AI stickers.
Anthropic's Claude Code has become one of the most popular AI coding tools.

Bloomberg/Getty Images

The tokenmaxxing backlash has begun

Tech Insider : Business
Uber COO Andrew Macdonald.
Uber COO Andrew Macdonald.

Bloomberg/Getty Images

Why Big Tech's $700 billion AI splurge is misleading

Tech Insider : Business, Style
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Ed Mulholland/Zuffa LLC

'Tokenmaxxing' has techies debating if leaderboards tracking AI token use are a good idea

Tech Insider : Business, Technology
A man at a computer
The "tokenmaxxing" trend is stirring up debate among software engineers online about how to best measure AI productivity.

Getty Images

Big Tech's data center spending spree shows no signs of slowing

Tech Insider : Business, Style
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy

REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Subscribe to ai-spending