Sam Altman says OpenAI's top token spender uses 100 billion tokens a month — and they're not even the world leader

• Somebody outside OpenAI goes through more than that 100 billion, which Altman called a personal “embarrassment.”
• Altman recognized that token budgeting has recently become a “huge issue” for companies.

On the panel, Altman referenced the meme: “My company spent my entire 2026 budget in Q1, can you make this more efficient?”

Altman said the company was continuing to push its models and explore other ways to deliver “more value for less spend.”

He also said that the cost question came up quite suddenly. At the beginning of 2026, “the issue never came up,” Altman said. “People were totally happy with the amount they were spending,” he said.

Now, AI costs are “a huge issue,” he said.