There really has never been another product priced like AI is being priced right now. Each of these things has been done before, but all of them together is new.

1. Insanely discounted starter plans. Claude $200/mo plan is like $5k-$8k of API rate usage.

2. Very limited cost visibility, they make it hard to figure out where you spent money (unless you're on the enterprise plan which is for people with unlimited money).

3. Nobody, not even the model provider, knows what your request will cost before it returns. You're writing a blank check every time you hit enter.

4. When you run out you run out very suddenly and disruptively. It's very hard to tell a developer on the 28th of the month "sorry, code by hand until the 1st of next month" so you tend to grant exceptions.

5. The price is changing all the time. New models come in, old models come out, prices change, caching behavior changes, harnesses change, etc. The cost of doing a single task is not predictable even if the task does not change.

6. Basically no volume discounting. Anthropic offered us 2% off for committing to $1M+ per year at API rates.

I manage AI spend for my team at work and I try really hard to keep costs under control but it's absolutely herding cats. Much harder than any other spending I've ever had to manage at work.