Pragmatic Engineer: Engineering Departments Starting to Cut Back on AI Token Spending

The Pragmatic Engineer·medium signal

Gergely Orosz reports a growing trend of engineering departments trying to rationalize AI token spend after budgets exploded in the past 2-3 months. Around 30% of developers have hit spending limits, with UK/EU companies pushing back against even $30-50/month per engineer. GitHub Copilot and Anthropic are limiting less-profitable individual users to prioritize business accounts. Companies are implementing caps and looking for ways to reduce token consumption.