Amazon Seeks Cheaper Claude Alternatives as Anthropic Moves to Token-Based Billing

Amazon is considering cheaper alternatives to Claude models from Anthropic after the parties revised their contract: starting in 2027, payment will switch to a token-based scheme, which could significantly increase the retailer's spending on AI, according to The Information.

What is changing in the Anthropic contract

The new pricing scheme ties the cost not to a fixed subscription or reserved computing resources, but to the number of tokens processed — units of text that the model reads and generates. The more actively Amazon products and services use Claude, the higher the total bill.

• Amazon and Anthropic's contract is switching to a token-based payment model
• The new scheme will take effect no earlier than 2027
• According to The Information, the pricing may significantly increase Amazon's spending on using Claude
• Amazon is already exploring alternative model vendor options, including OpenAI

Why Amazon is looking for alternatives

Token-based pricing directly ties expenses to usage scale: the broader Claude is integrated into Amazon's services — from internal developer tools to customer-facing products — the faster the bill grows when switching to such a scheme. For a company the size of Amazon, even a moderate increase in the price per token can result in a significant sum in absolute terms, especially if model usage continues to grow.

Therefore, in parallel with revising terms with Anthropic, the retailer has begun looking at other suppliers of large language models, including OpenAI — a direct competitor to Anthropic in this market. Diversifying AI model suppliers is standard practice for large technology companies: it reduces dependence on a single partner and provides more leverage in future price negotiations.

What this means

The story shows that even close partners in the AI field — and Amazon has long had tight ties with Anthropic — see their commercial interests diverge once payment terms change. As language models become part of the infrastructure of major companies, the price per token becomes as much a subject of competition and negotiation as cloud computing prices or network traffic costs used to be.