This old thread seemed like a good place to put this.

AI is getting pricey, but relief is coming, but not for you

https://www.theregister.com/ai-ml/2026/05/21/ai-is-getting-pricey-but-relief-is-coming-but-not-for-you/5244358

(Knowing this was bound to come, I've been sandbagging tokens in 1min.ai)

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Your AI addiction is their opportunity

One detail that always surprises me in these articles is not that Cloudflare is laying off 1100 employees, but that Cloudflare HAS 1100 employees.

So many of these little startups got big fast.

Sticker shock and the Florida lawsuit might prick the bubble.


AI costs how much? GitHub Copilot users react to new usage-based pricing system. - Ars Technica

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/06/ai-costs-how-much-github-copilot-users-react-to-new-usage-based-pricing-system/

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/r is unhappy

GitHubCopilot
https://old.reddit.com/r/GithubCopilot/

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Some are moving to this one, saying their initial trials had very good results

Token Plan - MiniMax API Platform
https://platform.minimax.io/subscribe/token-plan?tab=individual__monthly

/r says

^{closely related, methinks}

Microsoft Wants to 'Make People Addicted' to its New AI Assistant, Internal Documents Reveal
https://www.404media.co/microsoft-wants-to-make-people-addicted-to-scout-its-new-ai-assistant-internal-documents-reveal/

Lots of licenses being cancelled. I'm seeing these stories everywhere.

One programmer ran up $150,000 in compute charges in a month. He's doing the work of six at the cost of seven.

Apple TV now costs $14.99 a month after its fourth price hike in four years | The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/tech/986130/apple-tv-plus-price-hike

> Apple TV

We got hooked on Ted Lasso while visiting family. We thought about getting Apple TV: "It's only $9.95." Yes, in theory I am intellectually smart enough to know that is actually "ten dollars" but I'm not emotionally smart enough to know that. But I'm also easily distracted, so it didn't happen.

But somehow, $14.99, which I am both intellectually and emotionally smart enough to think of as "fifteen dollars," suddenly feels like more than I want to spend to see how Shrinking ends.

The point being, there is a price point where people don't really think about it. $1/mo and I would sign up for almost anything that gave me even the slightest marginal utility. $5/mo and I want to get something for it but not much. $10/mo and I start thinking about value relative to other things. Over $20/mo and I start putting it in the context of airline tickets or new skis and then it becomes REALLY hard for a streaming company to create a value proposition that gets me to pull the trigger.

All of which makes me wonder - if everyone has to raise prices, do we get into a death spiral where declining revenues mean that the only path to profitability is to raise prices even more?

This is basically what has been happening with satellite TV and geosynchronous satellite internet. They can only survive because they've already put their multi-million dollar birds in space and they just aren't replacing them as they die. The Hughesnet installer told us that a lot of people had loss access because one of the transceivers died and there was no plan to replace it. They are just running out the clock.

But a lot of these Millennial Lifestyle services can't run out the clock.

>there is a price point where people don't really think about it

Debbie says it's $19.95 for physical products. $14.95 for digital.

There was once a question on WmW? Here? that asked what was your limit for impulse purchases.

So, what's your limit for impulse purchases?

> impulse

I'm the worst person to ask.  I am honestly trying to become more of an impulse buyer, but by default I am so not an impulse buyer. I don't even impulse "buy" when it is free if it's a physical good. By default, I am an impulse discarder, but my wife has trained me out of that. Many people get this emotional boost from buying something. I get an emotional boost from filling a garbage bag and donating the stuff or throwing it away.

This summer I did this thing where I won a fairly pricy shirt ($95 full retail)
https://www.royalrobbins.com/us/en-us/men/tops/shirts-flannels/ms-camino-pucker-ss

I refused the shirt, because I have enough similar shirts. People got really consternated about it so I finally took one in my wife's size.

I do get a boost when I buy something, then use it and it works really well. So I bought a new single set of cams for climbing ($350) which seemed a bit extravagant since I had three sets that were perfectly functional (and typically climb with a double set). I climbed with them once and decided I genuinely liked them better than the older model, so I impulse purchased a second set.