OpenAI employees now use billions of tokens monthly

Sam Altman said the top token user inside OpenAI used just 100,000 tokens a month six years ago. Now, that number has jumped to about 100 billion monthly, which is now the average global usage. One external user even uses more than that, which Altman finds embarrassing.

Tokens are basic units AI models use to process text. OpenAI employees often show off their high usage on social media. One person used 603 billion tokens in 30 days, and another hit 210 billion in a single week.

Other companies are cutting back. Amazon shut down its internal token ranking, and Uber set limits after questioning the value. Altman said OpenAI is working on ways to lower costs while keeping quality high.