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"Inference Whales" Are Breaking AI Coding Services — And the Industry Is Reeling A surge in extreme usage by a small group of power users — dubbed "inference whales" — is exposing a critical flaw in the business model of AI coding tools. These users, running complex, long-term AI agents, are consuming vast amounts of computational resources, racking up costs in the tens of thousands of dollars while paying just $200 a month. The problem stems from how AI inference works: newer reasoning models break down tasks into multiple steps, drastically increasing token usage. When applied to AI coding platforms, where developers deploy automated agents for extended projects, costs spiral quickly. Many services offer unlimited access for a flat monthly fee — a model now under strain. Anthropic’s Claude Code, for example, saw some users burn through nearly 11 billion tokens — costing almost $35,000 — on a $200/month plan. One top user, Swedish developer Albert Örwall, admitted his workflow could cost Anthropic $500 a day, far exceeding the revenue from his subscription. In response, Anthropic is introducing weekly rate limits starting August 28, forcing heavy users to pay extra for additional capacity. The company also cited policy violations like account sharing and reselling access. Other platforms, like Cursor, have already shifted to usage-based pricing, triggering backlash over poor communication and unexpected bills. “Most users’ costs stayed constant, but the hardest requests cost an order of magnitude more,” Cursor acknowledged. Experts warn the dream of falling inference costs is fading. Newer models are more capable — and more expensive — and users consistently demand the best, not cheaper alternatives. “We’re cognitively greedy creatures,” said TextQL CEO Ethan Ding. “We want the best brain we can get.” With agentic workflows generating exponentially more tokens, even lower per-token prices won’t save the unlimited subscription model. “The math has fundamentally broken,” Ding concluded. As AI coding evolves, the era of free-for-all access may be over — and the real cost of intelligence is finally coming into focus.

منذ 9 أيام