--- title: "Anthropic cuts prices 90% as OpenAI's token share nears 50% ahead of a $2 trillion IPO ask" description: "OpenRouter data seen by the WSJ shows OpenAI nearly doubling its token share to about 50% while Anthropic responds with 90% price cuts and subscriber credits, six weeks before a roadshow asking for $2 trillion." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Money" published: 2026-10-08T22:56:10.643Z modified: 2026-10-08T22:56:10.643Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/anthropic-cuts-prices-90-as-openai-s-token-share-nears-50-ahead-of-a-2-trillion-ipo-ask language: en keywords: "Anthropic, OpenAI, IPO, Pricing, Market Share" --- # Anthropic cuts prices 90% as OpenAI's token share nears 50% ahead of a $2 trillion IPO ask > OpenRouter data seen by the WSJ shows OpenAI nearly doubling its token share to about 50% while Anthropic responds with 90% price cuts and subscriber credits, six weeks before a roadshow asking for $2 trillion. [Anthropic](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/anthropic) cut its cheapest model's list price by 90% [2] the same week a routing dataset showed [OpenAI](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/openai) rising from under 25% of tokens at the start of 2026 to nearly 50% last month [1][3]. The company [confidentially filed for an IPO targeting more than $2 trillion](https://cryptobriefing.com/anthropic-ipo-2-trillion-valuation-risks/), with formal marketing possibly starting the week of November 9 and investor meetings at its San Francisco headquarters on October 14 [4][5]. The price sheet just moved under the roadshow. *Chart: **OpenAI roughly doubled its OpenRouter token share in nine months** Column chart of OpenAI's share of OpenRouter token volume, under 25 percent at the start of 2026 and nearly 50 percent in September 2026, with the remainder held by all other providers* *Share of tokens routed through OpenRouter; the dataset comes largely from AI-native startups, so treat it as direction, not census. Sources: Gizmodo report on OpenRouter data seen by the WSJ, October 8, 2026. [1][3]* ## The share data says the crown moved in nine months OpenRouter, a service that routes AI compute by price and performance, showed OpenAI below 25% of tokens at the start of 2026 and nearly 50% last month, according to [data seen by the Wall Street Journal](https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/the-ai-price-war-is-heating-upand-openai-is-gaining-ground-on-anthropic-48b8525b) [1][3]. That is the coding and productivity traffic Anthropic owned. OpenAI's own answer was focus: CEO of applications Fidji Simo told staff in March, "We really have to nail productivity in general and particularly productivity on the business front" [1]. One caveat travels with the number: OpenRouter's volume comes largely from AI-native startups, with some legacy tech mixed in [1]. ## The price sheet is doing the defending Anthropic's [counterattack landed October 7](https://cryptobriefing.com/anthropic-launches-claude-haiku-5-5-with-75-lower-average-costs/) [2]. Haiku 5.5 lists at $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.50 per million output, down from $1 and $5 on Haiku 4.5, a cut the company says averages roughly 75% in real workloads [2]. Sonnet 5.5 cache reads were halved to $0.10 per million tokens, which Anthropic estimates trims about 20% off most agentic workloads [2]. Then the credits: $100 a month for Max 5x subscribers, $200 for Max 20x, up to $500 pooled for Teams, usable on any model [2]. Economically, credits are discounts; because 83% of 2025 revenue was metered by usage [4], the giveaway still lands on the revenue line. *Chart: **Haiku's list price fell 90% on input and output tokens** Column chart of Anthropic Haiku API pricing before and after the October 7 launch, per million tokens* *List prices per million tokens for prompts up to 100,000 tokens, Haiku 4.5 versus Haiku 5.5 launched October 7, 2026. Source: Crypto Briefing, October 7, 2026. [2]* ## The math the IPO is marketed on just got thinner The prospectus shows revenue of $4.6 billion in 2025 against an operating loss of $8.06 billion and a [net loss near $42 billion](https://theinference.org/article/anthropic-s-42-billion-loss-is-a-gain-google-and-amazon-already-banked), with the run rate topping $65 billion by July [4]. Investors are being asked to [value that at up to $2 trillion](https://theinference.org/article/anthropic-asks-2-trillion-in-a-filing-that-warns-its-own-ai-may-resist-shutdown), when some prospective buyers peg fair value at $1.8 to $2 trillion [5] and independent research firm New Constructs, calling it the "most ridiculous IPO of 2026," [values the business at $150 billion](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/anthropic-ipo-could-2026-most-100458570.html) [6]. Usage-based revenue means every price cut feeds straight into the margin story the listing rests on. *Chart: **The analyst call sits at $150 billion against a $2 trillion ask** Column chart comparing three valuations of Anthropic: New Constructs' $150 billion, the $1.8 trillion low end some buyers peg, and the $2 trillion IPO ask* *Valuations of Anthropic in trillions of dollars: the New Constructs analyst estimate, the low end of what some prospective buyers peg as fair value, and the IPO's target. Sources: Crypto Briefing, October 1, 2026; Benzinga via Yahoo Finance, October 8, 2026. [5][6]* ## What to watch OpenRouter's next monthly share read, and whether Anthropic's third-quarter numbers show the run rate holding above $100 billion despite the cuts [4][5]. If formal marketing begins the week of November 9 as reported, underwriters will be selling a margin story the company spent October discounting: a $2 trillion ask in November, against price cuts of 75 to 90% in October [2][4][5]. ## Takeaway OpenAI has nearly doubled its OpenRouter token share to about 50% while Anthropic answers with 90% price cuts, six weeks before a roadshow asking $2 trillion for a business still losing $8 billion a year on operations. ## Sources 1. [Gizmodo, Report Suggests OpenAI Has Clawed Tons of Market Share Back From Anthropic in 2026, 8 October 2026](https://gizmodo.com/report-suggests-openai-has-clawed-tons-of-market-share-back-from-anthropic-in-2026-2000823382) 2. [Crypto Briefing, Anthropic launches Claude Haiku 5.5 with 75% lower average costs, 7 October 2026](https://cryptobriefing.com/anthropic-launches-claude-haiku-5-5-with-75-lower-average-costs/) 3. [The Wall Street Journal, The AI Price War Is Heating Up, and OpenAI Is Gaining Ground on Anthropic, 7-8 October 2026](https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/the-ai-price-war-is-heating-upand-openai-is-gaining-ground-on-anthropic-48b8525b) 4. [Crypto Briefing, Anthropic plans historic IPO at a valuation that could top $2 trillion, 30 September 2026](https://cryptobriefing.com/anthropic-ipo-2-trillion-valuation-risks/) 5. [Crypto Briefing, Anthropic targets November IPO as investors weigh $2 trillion valuation, 1 October 2026 (citing Bloomberg)](https://cryptobriefing.com/anthropic-ipo-mid-november-2-trillion/) 6. [Benzinga via Yahoo Finance, Anthropic IPO Could Be 2026's 'Most Ridiculous' Offering as Analyst Values AI Firm at Just $150 Billion, 8 October 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/anthropic-ipo-could-2026-most-100458570.html) --- Anthropic cuts prices 90% as OpenAI's token share nears 50% ahead of a $2 trillion IPO ask — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/anthropic-cuts-prices-90-as-openai-s-token-share-nears-50-ahead-of-a-2-trillion-ipo-ask