AI token prices are cooling — but why?

A measure of daily spending on AI usage has fallen since its peak in May — although interpreting what the decline means is challenging.

The Silicon Data LLM Token Expenditure Index (SDLLMTK) is a daily snapshot of the state of the market. It draws data from a multitude of providers and produces a blended rate, expressed in US dollars per one million tokens. The Index currently stands at 1.62, an increase from the index’s inception in December last year, but down 20% lower than its peak in May.

Because the index weights frontier model and open-weight model usage differently, it’s difficult to identify the causes of the decline. Are enterprises pushing vendors to lower prices? That won’t be good news for those AI businesses going for an IPO,

It’s only a snapshot, but the Silicon Data Index may be the first sign that the rush for AI may just be slowing down.