---
title: "AI's Economics Don't Make Sense"
url: https://daily.dev/posts/ai-s-economics-don-t-make-sense-u59jqqbul
source_url: https://www.wheresyoured.at/ais-economics-dont-make-sense
type: article
source: "Where's Your Ed At"
published: 2026-04-28T16:36:35.814Z
updated: 2026-04-28T16:37:05.944Z
tags: ["github", "llm", "genai", "openai", "anthropic"]
reading_time: 49
upvotes: 69
comments: 11
language: en
---

> ## Documentation Index
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> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# AI's Economics Don't Make Sense

**[Where's Your Ed At](https://daily.dev/sources/wheresyoured)** · 49 min read · 69 upvotes · 11 comments

## Summary

A detailed critique of the economics underpinning generative AI, arguing that subscription-based pricing for LLM services was fundamentally deceptive and unsustainable. GitHub Copilot's shift to token-based billing is used as a case study showing that AI companies have been subsidizing massive compute costs for years, training users to consume far more than their subscriptions cover. The piece breaks down the broken unit economics of AI data centers (using a 100MW theoretical model and Stargate Abilene as examples), estimates that $156.8B in annual compute revenue is needed just for data centers currently under construction, and argues that OpenAI and Anthropic have no credible path to profitability. The author contends that hiding true token costs from users was a deliberate strategy to grow adoption, and that the transition to usage-based billing will expose just how expensive and often unjustifiable AI tooling really is.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://www.wheresyoured.at/ais-economics-dont-make-sense>

## Community discussion

Top comments from developers on daily.dev.

**@mouhsinebakhich** · 17 upvotes

> Canceled my Github copilot subscription Today, took me an hour or so and I got back to my old groove, coding myself instead of autocomplete

**@lynnfredricks** · 2 upvotes

> "Microsoft — like every AI company — swindled its customers by selling an unsustainable service, because it _never, ever made sense_ to sell LLM-powered services on a monthly subscription."
>
> Yes. How is this a surprise to anyone? An entire generation has grown to adulthood under this kind of business model.
>
> Subsidize until you or the market hits a certain momentum.

**@harshnimje** · 1 upvotes

> true it is, it's not even a growth spurt at this point...

**@theacademe** · 1 upvotes

> Does this mean that Claude Code users, whose cost is now $20-$200 per month, if they paid actual costs, would pay $63 to $630 per month?

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- [AI's Economics Don't Make Sense \[Ad Free\]](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-s-economics-don-t-make-sense-ad-free--tzsh6lout) · Where's Your Ed At · 7 upvotes · 0 comments

---

Tags: [#github](https://daily.dev/tags/github), [#llm](https://daily.dev/tags/llm), [#genai](https://daily.dev/tags/genai), [#openai](https://daily.dev/tags/openai), [#anthropic](https://daily.dev/tags/anthropic)

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