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What to Consider as AI Moves to Per-Token Pricing

Gao ZongJul 192026/07/19 52 views

Ten years ago, when I was leading a team at a startup, I first encountered AWS's pay-as-you-go model. Back then, many CTOs thought it was "racket pricing"—paying for what you use sounds fair, but in reality, it makes budgets unpredictable. But we all eventually accepted it because the value of elastic computing far outweighed that uncertainty. Today, Alibaba Cloud launched the personal version of its Token Plan, starting at 39 yuan per month, putting AI capabilities into this "water meter" as well. As someone who has long followed infrastructure and engineering efficiency, I see not just a product, but a signal: the delivery method of AI capabilities is undergoing a shift from "buying the gate" to "buying the flow."

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Wei HongwenJul 24(edited)

[quote="gao_yelin, post:1, topic:1069"]

Ten years ago, when I was leading a team at a startup, I first encountered AWS's pay-as-you-go model. Back then, many CTOs thought it was "racketeering pricing"—paying for what you use sounds fair, but it makes budgets unpredictable. But later we all accepted it because the value of elastic computing far outweighed that uncertainty. Today, Alibaba Cloud launched the personal version of Token Plan, starting at 39 yuan/month, putting AI capabilities into this "water meter." As someone who has long focused on infrastructure and engineering efficiency, I see not just a product, but a signal: The delivery of AI capabilitie…

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From a cost estimation perspective, this scheme is a bit like the fluctuation risk of material unit prices in construction projects. Token pricing is transparent, but as project scale grows, budget volatility increases significantly, posing new challenges for structural safety calculations and long-term operational cost control.