By Shirin Ghaffary | Updated on Jun 11, 2026 at 06:56 PM
OpenAI is considering significant price cuts for its services in anticipation of similar cost reductions from rival Anthropic PBC, according to people familiar with the matter, hinting at the possibility of a pricing war in the lead-up to their expected public offerings.
The ChatGPT creator is weighing various cost changes, including reducing the price for tokens, a unit of measurement for artificial intelligence use, if Anthropic does the same, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity as the information is not public. The deliberations are early and nothing has been decided.
OpenAI declined to comment. The Wall Street Journal previously reported the discussions.
Competition for users between OpenAI and Anthropic, which makes the Claude chatbot, is heating up as the two generative AI companies prepare to go public, capitalizing on the excitement around the technology. OpenAI filed for a public listing this week and was last valued at $852 billion in a fundraising round in March. Anthropic, which has lined up banks to work on its initial public offering, raised funds at a $965 billion valuation last month.
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Elon Musk’s SpaceX — which includes xAI, its satellite business and the X social network — is preparing for an IPO this week that would value the company at about $1.8 trillion. The generative AI companies also face competition from established tech giants including Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google.
Still, the enthusiasm for AI that’s driving these valuations is being tempered by the costs. Uber Technologies Inc. set usage caps on some of the AI-powered tools for its staff after the company blew through its annual AI budget earlier this year. Walmart Inc. also limited employees’ use of an in-house AI agent.