---
title: "AI coding costs could top developer salaries by 2028"
url: https://daily.dev/posts/ai-coding-costs-could-top-developer-salaries-by-2028-j0anrgaup
source_url: https://thenextweb.com/news/ai-coding-costs-developer-salary-gartner-2028
type: article
source: "The Next Web"
published: 2026-06-24T17:10:52.737Z
updated: 2026-06-25T09:02:38.206Z
tags: ["ai-agents", "ai-coding"]
reading_time: 6
upvotes: 0
comments: 0
language: en
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# AI coding costs could top developer salaries by 2028

**[The Next Web](https://daily.dev/sources/tnw)** · 6 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

Gartner predicts that by 2028, the cost of AI coding tools will exceed the average developer's salary, driven by a shift from flat-fee to consumption-based pricing. AI agents burn tokens continuously, and bills are already jumping from $20–$100/month to $2,000–$5,000 per developer. The core problem is visibility: most vendors don't clearly show how token usage is calculated, leaving companies unable to forecast or control spend. Gartner recommends engineering leaders categorize tasks by autonomy level, route simpler tasks to cheaper models, and practice context engineering to reduce token input. Microsoft and GitHub have already pulled back on heavy AI coding tool usage due to cost pressures, and some firms are capping employee AI spend entirely.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://thenextweb.com/news/ai-coding-costs-developer-salary-gartner-2028>

## Similar posts on daily.dev

- [Sticker shock has execs rethinking this whole AI thing](https://daily.dev/posts/sticker-shock-has-execs-rethinking-this-whole-ai-thing-ywgulwvsx) · The Register · 0 upvotes · 0 comments

---

Tags: [#ai-agents](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-agents), [#ai-coding](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-coding)

[View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-coding-costs-could-top-developer-salaries-by-2028-j0anrgaup)