Big agencies wrestle with offsetting the rising cost of token consumption. And OpenAI has policies for brands to apply ad credit to campaigns
Ad agencies are creating a 'futures market for tokens'—buying LLM access at wholesale rates and reselling at markup. This marks a critical shift: AI moves from R&D subsidy to commodity margin business as agencies can't absorb token costs anymore.
Monday, August 3rd, 2026 – 12:03 am
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Big agencies are wrestling with how to offset the rising cost of token consumption by turning it into a margin business.
One idea on the table, as Digiday reports, is for holdcos to effectively become a “futures market for tokens.”
Companies are facing a significant challenge with the escalating cost of AI tokens as they adopt agentic workflows. Uber has…
OpenAI is weighing token price cuts to win customers from Anthropic, the Wall Street Journal reports.
In Q1 2026, OpenAI and Anthropic moved enterprise customers from flat-rate plans to token-based...
The OpenAI CEO acknowledges that cost concerns have become a "huge issue."
The AI ad wars have officially begun, and OpenAI is staffing up and dropping rates to lure brands away from the likes of Meta and…
Marketers and media buyers are gradually getting more comfortable talking about ad campaigns they're testing on LLMs like…
