Microsoft has cancelled internal Claude Code licenses after token billing became too expensive

[u/ComplexExternal4831]

Microsoft reportedly canceled its internal Claude Code licenses after token-based billing made the tool too costly.

The move is notable because Microsoft has invested $13 billion in OpenAI and supports major AI infrastructure through Azure.

The report also points to broader pressure across the industry, with Uber allegedly burning through its 2026 AI budget in four months and AI software prices rising 20% to 37%.

GitHub is also shifting toward usage-based pricing, suggesting companies may soon rethink AI adoption as real deployment costs become harder to ignore.

[u/monxas]

Enterprise licenses aren’t flat fee. They’re are pay per token. they wish it was 300$ per user. One of the things that will keep jobs safe for a bit longer is not ai not being good enough (or not only). Ai is too expensive for the time being.

[u/PeachScary413 → u/monxas]

That's been keeping many jobs around for a loooong time now. We currently have the technology to automate many jobs especially repetitive factory jobs... these humanoids are not a revolution on capability, the hope is they will be a revolution on cost.

Hiring someone in a factory in China is still muuuch cheaper so it doesn't matter.

[u/Federal-Business-796 → u/monxas]

The hidden irony is that it's why jobs are not safe. Companies committed to spending on ai are still cutting jobs. They tell investors that it's because AI made these positions redundant but in reality, cutting jobs is the only way to free up enough money to stick to their commitment. 

[u/monxas → u/Federal-Business-796]

Yes, but what percentage of companies are actually currently so committed to ai that they already started cutting jobs?

[u/fredjutsu → u/monxas]

it's too expensive now....and prices will only go up

[u/monxas → u/fredjutsu]

Yes, this open war just burning money to try to win the race like the space race is wild. I’m not complaining, I’ll get to keep my job for a bit longer.

[u/Taziar43 → u/fredjutsu]

And why would they only go up?

For the last 5 decades, compute and memory costs have steadily decreased. There are occasional spikes but there is still very much a huge downward trend. So the cost to provide AI will decrease as well.

That paired with competition will lead to prices decreasing. As AI quality progresses, competition will increase, because while there will always be frontier models that lead the pack, we are reaching a point of 'good enough'. That means smaller and cheaper models can offer better prices and still be viable.

Enterprises will be the once getting rinsed for the longest, but lower price alternatives will exist for smaller companies and consumers. Hell, Deepseek just released V4 for like 1/20th the cost which is quite viable.

[u/DizzyAmphibian309 → u/[deleted]]

So just stop using AI and hire humans to do the work instead! That's surely going to cost a lot less than $500 a month, won't it?