A new analysis from SemiAnalysis says expensive AI subscriptions can become a serious cost problem for the companies behind them. In one case, OpenAI’s $200-a-month ChatGPT Pro plan could cost about $14,000 a month if it is used at full capacity. Anthropic’s $200 Claude Max plan could cost about $8,000 under similar conditions.
The tests looked at long coding tasks and more complex AI workflows, sometimes called agentic AI. When users spend more time on these tasks, they use more tokens, which increases the cost of running the systems.
The analysis says OpenAI’s lower and mid-level plans become unprofitable once usage passes 11.4%, while its most advanced plans reach that point at only 5.7% usage. Anthropic’s Claude Pro and Claude Max 5x plans break even at about 20% usage, and its top plans near about 10%.
Because of this pressure, some companies are turning to cheaper models for simpler jobs and saving the more expensive ones for harder tasks.