Ramp data: AI usage soars while spending stalls as tokens turn into a commodity

Businesses are using more AI than ever, but the bills are not keeping up. Data compiled by Ramp shows AI token spending rose just 1.5 percent across August and September combined, down from a 42 percent month-over-month increase in July.

Ramp's index draws on real spending and invoice data from a large base of corporate customers, which makes it one of the higher-frequency reads on how fast businesses are actually adopting AI. What stands out in the latest numbers is the divergence from usage: token volumes kept climbing.

In other words, tokens are turning into a commodity. Unit prices are being competed down, discounts are becoming routine, and using more no longer means paying proportionally more. For model companies whose growth story assumes usage converts linearly into revenue, that is an uncomfortable signal.

Two forces are driving it. On one side, model providers are competing on price and handing out enterprise discounts to lock in accounts. On the other, customers are getting thrifty — capping budgets for long-running tasks, routing lighter requests to cheaper models, and deciding internally where expensive models are actually allowed.

The report is also a caution against reading one month as a trend: October data showed spending growth recovering, with token spend rising again. The shape of the curve looks less like demand collapsing and more like the end of hypergrowth and the start of a price-sensitive steady state.

For investors, the real question is where adoption spreads next. Heavy spending is concentrated among a small set of high-growth technology companies; if that cohort plateaus, it is unclear whether healthcare, retail and other traditional industries will spend enough to make up the difference.

What to watch is when the price war plateaus and whether AI budgets graduate from experimental line items into fixed costs. If usage keeps rising while spending stays flat, the valuation math for AI businesses has to change.