Is AI going to get cheaper or more expensive?

By Kamil Kępiński, founder of SmophyAI

Last updated: 24 October 2026

For businesses, AI use is getting cheaper: Ramp found that business AI spend on Ramp is falling even as token volumes, the units of text that AI models read and write, keep growing. For many people the monthly bill still grows, because they add more AI plans. Bank of America Institute found that reading and information subscriptions, which include AI-related offerings, grew fastest, up 61% year over year among Gen Z. The useful question is less what one AI costs and more how many plans you pay for.

Is the price of AI going down?

For businesses on Ramp, spend is falling while use is rising.

The Ramp AI Index tracks what U.S. businesses on Ramp pay for AI. Ramp found that this spend is falling even as token volumes increase, a decline driven almost exclusively by competition between OpenAI and Anthropic, while open source models make up less than 5% of business spend on Ramp.

In plain words, the companies in that data are using more AI and paying less for it, and Ramp links the change to price competition between the two leading labs.

Why does AI still feel expensive?

The cost spreads across many plans.

Subscription spending rose 7.7% year over year in July, according to Bank of America Institute. Within that, reading and information subscriptions, which include AI-related offerings, posted the fastest growth across generations: up 61% among Gen Z and 51% among younger Millennials, Bank of America Institute found.

Each plan looks small on its own. The total grows when a chat plan, a writing tool, an image tool and a second chat plan for a different model all renew in the same month.

Do people switch AI tools to save money?

Among developers in the Stack Overflow survey, mostly not.

The Stack Overflow Developer Survey found that 25% switched AI tools because of better output quality, the single largest reason, while only 6% switched because of costs and 34% kept their original tool choices over the past year. In that group, quality decided more switches than price did.

When does a second AI plan make sense?

It makes sense if it covers a job the first one does not do well.

Leading models differ by task. Epoch AI found that GPT-6 Astra tops the Epoch Capabilities Index and set a math record, while Claude Fable 5.1 scores higher on software engineering benchmarks. Writing, coding, research with live sources and image work can each point to a different model, which is a real reason to use more than one.

Trouble starts when the second plan is bought for the same job as the first. Two chat plans that both handle your emails and summaries are paid twice for one kind of work, and comparing them on the same task shows whether one can replace the other.

Before you add a plan, ask one question: which task will this model handle that my current plans do not? If the answer is a specific task you do every week, the plan may earn its place. If the answer is a launch post or a benchmark chart, test it first on your own prompt. Plans you do not need cost the most when they renew unnoticed.

How do you keep AI costs under control?

Pay for coverage, not for overlap.

1. List every AI plan you pay for. Include the ones on a team card and the ones that renew yearly.
2. Write down what each one is for. One line per plan: the kind of task it does best for you.
3. Mark the overlap. Two chat plans used for the same kind of writing are one plan too many.
4. Test your main tasks side by side. Run the same prompt on the models you pay for and see which one you actually rely on for each job.
5. Keep the coverage you need. Choose the setup that gives you every model your work needs, in as few renewals as possible.
6. Check again when prices change. Review your plans after a price cut or a new model release, not only at renewal.

How does SmophyAI fit this?

SmophyAI is an AI workspace where ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Perplexity and DeepSeek answer the same prompt side by side in one subscription.

Multi-Chat sends one prompt to all six models at once, so step four above takes one prompt instead of several logins. Best Answer then combines the strongest information from the six responses into one reply. Instead of adding a plan each time a model gets better at something, you keep the leading models in one place and use the one that does best on each task. You can start free with your own question.

Common questions

Is AI going to get cheaper or more expensive?

For businesses, the data points to cheaper use. Ramp found that business AI spend on Ramp is falling even as token volumes increase, driven by competition between OpenAI and Anthropic.

Why do my AI subscriptions keep adding up?

Because people add plans instead of replacing them. Bank of America Institute found that subscriptions which include AI-related offerings grew fastest, up 61% among Gen Z.

Do people switch AI tools to save money?

Among developers, mostly not. The Stack Overflow Developer Survey found that 25% switched for better output quality and only 6% switched because of costs.

Is it worth paying for more than one AI subscription?

It is worth paying for the models your tasks need, not for overlap. One plan that covers several leading models side by side can replace separate plans that do the same job.

Sources

• Ramp, AI's pricing power problem (Ramp AI Index)
• Bank of America Institute, Consumers subscribe to more spending
• Stack Overflow, Developer Survey, AI
• Epoch AI, GPT-6 Astra leads on math benchmarks, but not on software engineering

About the author. Kamil Kępiński is the founder of Smophy Labs Inc., the company behind SmophyAI and EntityRise. Follow Kamil on X and LinkedIn.

About SmophyAI. More than multi-model chat: SmophyAI, by Smophy Labs Inc., is an AI workspace with studios for chat, image, video, writing and business intelligence. Run ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Perplexity and DeepSeek side by side with live web search, or let Smophy Mode route every task to the model best suited for it. Every top model, one place, from $19.98 per month instead of a stack of separate AI subscriptions. Try SmophyAI free: no credit card required, cancel anytime.