SAN FRANCISCO — OpenAI is offering steep discounts — reported at up to 90 percent in customer cost terms — to pull some of Anthropic's biggest enterprise customers onto its own platform, according to a report in The Information relayed by The Decoder on October 25, 2026, in a price war that is reshaping the market for artificial intelligence just as Anthropic heads toward a planned stock market listing and both companies face cheaper competition from Chinese rivals.
Illustration: Two glowing abstract artificial intelligence orbs facing off as price tags fall, symbolising an AI price war.
What Happened
The campaign, as described in the reporting, targets large accounts that already spend heavily on Anthropic's Claude models. At Rippling, a workforce-management company, chief executive Parker Conrad said OpenAI's share of the company's coding workload rose from 16 percent to 52 percent, while Anthropic's share fell from 57 percent to 18 percent, according to the reports. Replit, a developer platform, switched after OpenAI offered more than 30 percent off a contract worth over $100 million a year, the reports said — after Anthropic declined to extend Replit's earlier discount unless it committed to spending more.
DataCamp, a training company, saw even larger savings: its chief executive, Jonathan Cornelissen, said OpenAI's pricing cut his company's costs by 80 to 90 percent, according to the reports, although another report put a specific Codex discount for DataCamp at 40 percent. A United States bank with more than $7 billion in assets reportedly had its ChatGPT seats doubled to 500 employees at no extra charge, paying under $7 per user against a usual rate of $20 or more.
The 90 percent figure needs careful reading. As one summary of the reporting noted, it reflects a customer's estimate of cost savings being sought, not a published price list that anyone has been shown receiving — and at the tiers where coding agents actually run, both laboratories list $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens. The war, in other words, is being fought in contract terms, defaults, and bundled seats, not on the meter.
Background
The discount push lands at a delicate moment for Anthropic. The company reported third-quarter revenue of $16.8 billion, up about 45 percent from the second quarter, according to earlier Reuters reporting — but an investor memo cited by The Decoder said its growth slowed between the second and third quarters. Anthropic is also weeks away from a reported listing, which makes losing marquee logos at exactly this moment particularly awkward, the reports noted. The reports reviewed include no statement from Anthropic.
OpenAI, meanwhile, is itself spending heavily to win the enterprise market. The Decoder reported that OpenAI pitched investors on a $1.4 trillion valuation and settled on $1.25 trillion to close a funding round of up to $30 billion, with signatures sought by the end of the following week. Part of the discounting is OpenAI buying market share at the expense of its own margins, The Decoder noted — but not all of it. The company has also delivered real price cuts through its newer Sol and Luna model lines, built on more efficient models and infrastructure, according to the reports.
Both companies are being squeezed from below as well. Chinese models from DeepSeek and Kimi deliver comparable performance for a fraction of the cost, the reports noted, and when two frontier models are close in quality, the cheaper one tends to win the contract. That pressure is one reason enterprise buyers now treat models as increasingly swappable commodities rather than permanent commitments.
Illustration: Business people signing a contract at a desk with a laptop showing computer code.
Why It Matters
For enterprise buyers, the price war is immediately good news: the same coding and AI work can now cost far less, and vendors are competing for their business with bundled seats and contract sweeteners. Replit's case shows the dynamic clearly — its chief executive, Amjad Masad, said onstage in San Francisco on October 16 that the company was no longer working with Anthropic, and later said Replit "remains model agnostic" while calling OpenAI "now our preferred partner for powering Replit Agent," according to the reports.
For the AI industry, the stakes are larger. If frontier models are becoming commodities, the company that wins may not be the one with the best model but the one with the deepest pockets and the best distribution — able to subsidise prices until rivals cannot keep up. That logic favours OpenAI's scale, but it also burns cash: sacrificing margins to capture volume only pays off if customers stay once discounts expire, and if the underlying models keep getting cheaper to run.
For Anthropic, the choice is now sharp: match OpenAI's prices and accept thinner margins ahead of a listing, or hold its prices and watch more of its best accounts walk. For investors, the episode is a reminder that spectacular revenue growth in AI does not automatically mean durable profits, especially when the product can be swapped.
Illustration: A software developer working with an AI coding assistant on dual computer monitors.
What Happens Next
Three things will show where this price war goes. First, Anthropic's response: whether it answers with its own discounts, bundles, or enterprise terms will signal how much it values retention over margin. Second, Anthropic's listing: investor appetite will test whether the market still believes a frontier laboratory can defend premium pricing. Third, the next round of enterprise renewals: if customers who switched for discounts stay with OpenAI when contracts renew, the land grab will have worked; if they switch back or spread spending across several providers, the war will have mainly transferred money from laboratories to buyers.
Cheaper Chinese models will keep pressing from below in the meantime, and OpenAI's own funding round will test whether investors are willing to finance a strategy of buying market share. The discount war may be great for customers today — but its real verdict will come when the discounts end.
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FAQ
What is OpenAI accused of doing?
According to a report in The Information, relayed by The Decoder, OpenAI is offering steep enterprise discounts — reported at up to 90 percent in customer cost terms — to win large customers away from Anthropic.
Which customers have reportedly switched?
Reports name Rippling, where OpenAI's share of coding work rose from 16 to 52 percent; Replit, which switched after an offer of more than 30 percent off a contract worth over $100 million a year; and DataCamp, whose chief executive said costs fell 80 to 90 percent.
Is the 90 percent figure a published price cut?
No. As summaries of the reporting note, it reflects a customer's estimated cost savings, not a published price list. At the tiers where coding agents run, both laboratories list similar per-token prices — the contest is over contract terms, defaults, and bundled seats.
Why does this matter for Anthropic now?
Anthropic is reported to be weeks from a stock market listing, and an investor memo cited by The Decoder said its growth slowed between the second and third quarters — making the loss of marquee logos especially awkward timing.
What happens when the discounts end?
That is the open question. If switched customers stay, OpenAI's land grab pays off; if they switch back or spread spending across providers, the price war will mainly have transferred money from AI laboratories to buyers.
Sources
- The Information, "Anthropic's margin is OpenAI's opportunity," as reported by The Decoder, October 25, 2026.
- The Decoder, reporting on OpenAI's enterprise discount campaign (Rippling, Replit, DataCamp), October 25, 2026.
- Reuters, "Anthropic Revenue Soars 45% to $16.8 Billion as AI Startup Courts Investors Before Blockbuster IPO," October 14, 2026 (background on Anthropic's third-quarter revenue).
- SiliconNoon, "The Week in AI — October 19–25, 2026," October 25, 2026 (valuation and discount context).
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