As AI usage surges, more companies are moving to overhaul pricing plans in a way that effectively raises prices.

Anthropic recently revamped its Claude Enterprise pricing policy and adopted a model that charges fees based on how much users consume, on top of a monthly base subscription fee. For users, it has become more likely they will pay more than they would with just the subscription fee.

Until now, the standard pricing model for enterprise software has been a flat-rate subscription that charges a fixed monthly fee per user. As AI spreads, the industry appears to be accelerating efforts to shift flat-rate plans toward usage-based or outcome-based models.

Companies that sell AI cite the argument that AI does not fit well with a 100 percent flat-rate pricing plan. But a closer look also suggests concern that sticking with flat-rate pricing could hurt profitability as AI use inside companies rises sharply.

According to a recent report by The Information, Microsoft said when it reported results for the third quarter of its fiscal year that profit margins in its cloud unit, including Azure, fell as usage of its AI coding tool GitHub Copilot increased.

In the previous quarter, Microsoft Cloud profit margin was 56 percent, down 5 percentage points from a year earlier. That also contributed to Microsoft shares falling 4.5 percent after the earnings announcement.

Against that backdrop, Microsoft introduced an AI pricing plan similar to Anthropic's. On April 27 local time, Microsoft rolled out a new pricing policy for GitHub Copilot customers that charges additional fees based on usage. It was an additional step following a price increase announced last week.

GitHub will introduce a "GitHub AI Credits" system across all Copilot plans from June 1. Credits will be deducted when AI features are used, and additional charges will apply once the allocation is exhausted.

Microsoft appears to be seeking to expand GitHub Copilot-style pricing to other products, including Microsoft 365. Satya Nadella (사티아 나델라), Microsoft's CEO, said on a conference call after the latest quarterly earnings announcement, "Whether it is productivity, coding, or security, businesses that charge per user will become both per-user and usage-based businesses."

Microsoft is already strengthening usage-based pricing policies for its core enterprise AI applications.

Microsoft charges $30 per user per month for Microsoft 365 Copilot, while using a tactic of charging separate fees for additional features such as custom agents. Microsoft will also soon introduce a new software bundle called E7. E7 includes Office software, security tools and Microsoft 365 Copilot, and will be offered at $99 per user per month. E7 also includes agent features that are billed on a usage basis, and if usage exceeds a set limit, users must pay additional costs on top of the monthly flat fee.

Even though consumption-based pricing is harder to predict than flat-rate subscriptions and could end up costing more, Microsoft says companies will accept consumption-based models because Copilot can reduce workflows and ultimately cut costs.

But it remains to be seen whether that will happen. Some corporate CIOs voiced concern over Anthropic's price increase, and competitors such as Google are emphasizing cost predictability by promoting per-user pricing as part of their push into the enterprise market, The Information reported.

Google changed its policy in early 2025 to charge a unified per-user fee for its cloud-based productivity software platform Workspace and AI for Workspace.

Companies using Google Workspace previously had to pay an additional $20 to $30 per user per month for AI features to use Gemini AI, but the policy change made it available as a basic function with a Google Workspace subscription. Instead, Google raised Google Workspace's monthly subscription fee.