TechCrunch reported on 6 November that Ramp data shows AI token spending flattening while use kept rising. Tokens are the small chunks of text AI firms bill for. Ramp said spending grew 1.5% across August and September, after 42% growth in July. TechCrunch says spending picked up again, rising 8.9% from 23 September to 23 October. Ramp's page shows 8.9% spend growth and 37.1% volume growth for its latest complete week, against the same week a month earlier.
Ramp economist Ara Kharazian said volumes rose, so demand is not the problem. He blames price competition. TechCrunch said OpenAI halved API prices for two models in September, and that Anthropic said in a recent filing its price cuts reduced revenue growth by about $600 million. Kharazian also said almost all AI spend comes from venture-backed tech firms. The top 1% of firms spent slightly less, just under their summer peak of $10,000 per employee a month. He said that was enough to flatten total revenue. Ramp's token data covers only firms using its Token Spend Management product.
Spend equals volume times price per token, so a price cut can cancel out growth in use. Ramp's data fits that pattern. Buyers should check whether their contracts passed on the cuts, whether they pay by volume or by price, and what any enterprise discount commits them to.