Frontier Labs Cut Model Prices as Enterprises Shift to Cheaper AI to Control Runaway Costs

Anthropic and OpenAI rolled out significantly cheaper AI models this week as enterprises increasingly adopt open-source alternatives and multi-model strategies to rein in soaring AI spending, speakers at The Information's AI Agenda Live conference in San Francisco said Wednesday. Enterprise AI infrastructure costs have plummeted 67% year-over-year, from $18.40 per million tokens in the first quarter of 2025 to $6.07 in the first quarter of 2026, driven by a combination of frontier model price cuts and a rapid shift toward cheaper, open-weight alternatives.