Top AI spenders cut per-employee costs by nearly 10 percent in August
Ramp's September 2026 AI Index reveals that per-employee AI spending among the top 1 percent of US companies dropped by nearly 10 percent in August. This decline is attributed to seasonal factors, falling token prices, and a strategic shift by enterprises toward cheaper standard models rather than expensive frontier options. While overall AI adoption continues to grow, the data indicates a maturing market where cost efficiency is becoming a primary driver of usage patterns.
- ▪Median per-employee AI spending at the top 1 percent of US companies fell 9.7 percent in August to $7,205.
- ▪The effective price per million tokens decreased by 41 percent from its March 2026 peak to $0.68.
- ▪Frontier models accounted for 45 percent of token consumption in early September, down from 53 percent in early August.
- ▪Open-weight models are used by only 6.4 percent of AI-using companies on the Ramp platform.
- ▪Anthropic services were paid for by 43.8 percent of US companies in August, slightly ahead of OpenAI's 39.8 percent.
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| Original publisher | The Decoder |
| Canonical URL | https://the-decoder.com/top-ai-spenders-cut-per-employee-costs-by-nearly-10-percent-in-august/ |
| Publication time | Sat, 12 Sep 2026 10:37:03 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-09-12T10:42:50.761Z |
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AI in practice Copy the url to clipboard Share this article Go to comment section Top AI spenders cut per-employee costs by nearly 10 percent in August Matthias Bastian View the LinkedIn Profile of Matthias Bastian Sep 10, 2026 Midjourney prompted by THE DECODER Ask about this article… Search Ramp's AI Index for September 2026 shows falling per-employee AI spending among the highest-spending US companies, while usage shifts away from expensive frontier models toward cheaper alternatives. Financial services company Ramp tracks monthly US business spending on AI services through its AI Index. The September edition shows AI adoption still growing, but at a slower pace. The companies that spend the most on AI spent less in August than they did the month before.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at The Decoder.
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