OpenAI's discounts lure customers from Anthropic before its IPO (opens the source in a new tab)
- The Information reports that OpenAI's heavy discounts on its models and its Codex coding tool are pulling some business away from Anthropic. At HR software firm Rippling, Anthropic's share of coding work has dropped to 18% since May, with OpenAI now handling most of it.
- Replit moved most of its AI spending to OpenAI after a discount of more than 30%, a person familiar said, once Anthropic declined to extend its own discount without a bigger commitment.
- Anthropic has largely held firm on pricing and margins, and its new Opus 5.5 model has since retaken the lead on routing service OpenRouter.
- 18%
- Anthropic's share of Rippling's coding work
- 30%+
- OpenAI discount that won Replit, per a source
Why it matters Switching models now takes hours, not months, so loyalty is thin and price counts. Investors weighing Anthropic's planned listing will ask whether its margins can survive a rival willing to lose money to win share.
Other side Discounts that deepen losses cannot run forever, and a better model can win customers back fast, as the OpenRouter rebound suggests. A handful of startup anecdotes may also say little about large enterprise contracts.