Dario Amodei: some tokens Claude produces are worth a few cents, others could be worth tens of millions of dollars.
His examples:
1. Telling someone to restart their Mac: the model has said it 10 million times, worth a dollar or less
2. Telling a pharma company to move an aromatic ring to the other end of a molecule: potentially tens of millions
3. Expect pay-for-results pricing, or labor-like pricing by the hour
4. It's a new industry, so many models will be tried
Today pricing is simpler: per the S-1, usage-based pricing was 80% of H1 2026 revenue and subscriptions 20%.
Full breakdown here: