Just Asking vs Going Deep - The New Stats on What People Spend on AI (and a cheeky Uber tip).
With Jez Rowe and Cam Lynch
New spending data shows the top 1% of consumer AI payers average $903 a month while the median sits at $25. Jez and Cam say the gap is chatbot versus builder: always-on crons, triggers and workflows are what burn tokens, and that's where the value is heading. They also flag research showing AI agents push pricier options to people they think are wealthy, so stay price-aware.
What this episode answers
How much do people spend on AI subscriptions per month?
The median paying consumer spends about $25 a month on AI, and that figure has barely moved, while the top 1% average $903 a month. That's from an Andreessen Horowitz analysis of card spending data from Yipit Data, published in October 2026 with figures as of August 2026. Top-tier spend is up 80% in 18 months, and that 1% accounts for 19.5% of all consumer AI spending, more than the bottom 50% combined. AI use is broad, but for most people it isn't deep.
Why do some people pay so much more for AI than others?
The gap is using AI as a chatbot versus using it as a builder. Cam Lynch, founder of Vibe CFO, explains that heavy spenders set up crons: scheduled triggers and alerts that wake the AI up to check a report, do a job and report back, without you at the computer. That background work burns tokens, and tokens add up fast. If you only chat with AI, $25 a month covers it. Once AI works for you around the clock, expect the bill to climb.
Why do most people only use AI as a chatbot?
Most people stall at one chatbot because they don't know what's possible and don't want to pay more. It's a lot like a gym membership: paid for, then barely used. Going deeper means workflows, triggers and agents, which will increasingly sit behind higher-priced plans, with some personal AI agents possibly moving from around $300 to $1,000 a month. Value is what shifts people. When an assistant runs your calendar, emails and bookings, the higher price starts to feel worth it.
Do AI shopping agents show higher prices to wealthy users?
Research reported in October 2026 suggests they do. Researchers from Cisco and Carnegie Mellon University ran 325,000 experiments and found AI agents push pricier options to users they think are wealthy. As agents start buying on your behalf, that raises a real question about who sets the rules they follow. Meanwhile, act price-aware. Jez Rowe's tip from experience: on apps like Uber, decline the first fare, close the app and reopen it, and you'll often see a lower price.
Episode notes
Most people paying for AI spend around $25 a month and use it the same way every day. They ask it questions and have a chat. Meanwhile the top 1% are spending around $900 a month, up 80% in just 18 months. That’s from new card-spending data published by Silicon Valley investor Andreessen Horowitz, and it shows how early most of us still are.
What we land on is that the difference is asking versus building. Most people pay for one AI and stop there, like a gym membership. The people spending more have set up scheduled triggers and workflows that wake the AI up to check a report, do a job and come back with an answer, all while they’re away from the desk. That’s when it stops feeling like a chatbot and starts feeling like help. It’s also when the tokens add up, which is why the spend climbs.
So why move up? Because that’s where the value is. Most people stall because they don’t know what’s possible yet, and the deeper workflows will increasingly sit on higher plans. Once an assistant is sorting your calendar, writing your emails and booking your travel, the higher price starts to make sense.
One thing to watch as agents start spending money for you. Researchers ran 325,000 experiments and found AI agents nudge people toward pricier options, even when asked for the cheapest. Staying price aware pays off.
Jez and Cam on why most people are still just asking AI questions while others have it doing the work, what it takes to make that jump, plus a cheeky tip for knocking a few dollars off your next Uber.
Five minutes. One thing that matters. We ignore the rest, so you can too.
Vibe CFO is Australian founded. An AI CFO for small and medium business, out of the box, governed and secure.
Vibe in 5.
Transcript
Read the full transcript
Ah, yet another big week in AI. This is The AI Exhale, hosted by Vibe CFO with Jez and Cam. Five minutes, one thing that matters, or maybe two. We ignore the rest so you can too.
Jez: All right, welcome to episode 24 of the AI Exhale. We're going to talk today a bit about cost, which is a nice coupling with the other episode actually. You know, it's always good to be price sensitive, or at least price aware, as all of this continues to ebb and flow.
An interesting piece came out this week with some really strong stats and data on what people are spending. So we had Andreessen Horowitz, one of Silicon Valley's biggest investors, publishing a ranking of the top consumer AI apps. But interestingly, using a data company called Yipit Data, they were able to analyse the actual spend off cards. So here it is. The top 1% of AI payers average $903 a month.
That's as of August, and that's up 80% in 18 months. That 1% made up 19.5% of all consumer AI spending, and that is more than the bottom 50% combined.
So basically it's kind of like an AI wealth gap emerging, if you want to look at it through that lens. The interesting part though, the median payer is $25 a month, and it hasn't budged for quite a while. I mean, what is the difference, Cam? What would you say? That's a big disparity between those two numbers. $900 a month is essentially having an employee, but the everyday person, the majority, is still paying that typical $25.
Cam: I want to say that's got to be near $30, or maybe I'm paying too much for my ChatGPT. It's just that set fee for the frontier, entry level people just using it day to day, not high usage, and just having a chat with it really. It's just a chatbot really. They haven't quite worked out how to evolve, which just tells you the story of what we already knew: this is only the beginning of how massive this movement is.
This is what's happening in the world. To think of the crazy valuations and how much money the frontier labs are already making, only on coding assistants. That's just one snippet. This is why we had, and we did this last week, the launch of Dots and these personal AI assistants direct to the consumer as well. Because this is the difference, right?
That $25 versus $900, it's really just what are called crons, for anyone who wants to geek out on the data. Crons are like schedules and alerts that trigger the AI to wake up, basically, and it makes them feel human because they're basically waking up to do a job. So they're like, cron to wake up.
Check that report and go and do something for you and come back and feed back. And that is where the human goes, oh my goodness me. And that's the difference between those two price points. One is just talking to it like a chatbot, and the other is talking to it like a builder. Setting up these workflows and triggers and alerts, pulses that run in the background. And that's what costs more money, by the way. This is what I don't think people get. People go, I only pay like $25 a month for AI, why do people think it's gonna cost so much more? That's because you haven't set off these triggers and these alerts, where AI goes and does work for you all the time without you actually in front of the computer. That's what's gonna cost. Those tokens add up really fast.
Jez: So consumer AI usage is essentially very broad, and for almost everyone, it is not deep. It's almost like that analogy I like that you use around the gym membership. They pay for one AI and stop. Why do you reckon most people stall at one chatbot and don't go into the world of workflows and triggers, which we are seeing emerge?
Cam: They don't want to, they don't know what's possible. They don't want to pay. You won't be able to do these workflows in the future without higher plans. Even those personal AI agents that came out last week.
I think they were talking that it's possible it's going to go from $300 up to like $1,000 a month, basically. So you pay $1,000 a month, right? But if you've got a personal assistant, in the future, it's all about value. If it does everything, it sorts your calendar, it writes your emails, it books your flights, it goes on your holidays, it orders everything online, all of a sudden you go, oh, this is so useful, I can't live without it.
Jez: And meanwhile, researchers from Cisco and Carnegie Mellon University ran 325,000 experiments and found AI agents push pricier options to users they think are wealthy. I've seen price sensitivity plays in tech. And here's a tip for the audience. If you're ordering an Uber or anything,
don't take the first one that comes. If you actually deny it, and even close the app and reopen, it shows that you're cost-aware, price-sensitive, and it'll often give you a good $5 off or lower. So there's some money back in the pocket from us directly.
Cam: Who should be in charge of those questions? These are the questions we were having about 10 years ago, these conscience questions, like when the AI drives the driverless car and it has a choice to either kill the drug dealer on the side of the street or kill the mother with two children. And you go, this has got to be programmed in.
And that's your five-ish minutes back. Vibe CFO, Australian founded. An AI CFO for small and medium businesses, out of the box, governed and secure. vibecfo.ai. Now you know.
Now you know.
The AI Exhale is made by VibeCFO. Australian founded, an AI CFO for small and medium business, out of the box.