Last updated October 28, 2026. Figures are as published by each source on the dates shown. “Index” means a published data series, “Reported” means a news source said it and we haven't confirmed it with the original. Adoption counts customers, spend counts dollars, and usage counts tokens, so don't compare rows directly.
Businesses paying for AI
RAMP AI INDEX · OCTOBER 202655.9% of businesses in Ramp's data pay for AI, up 0.62 points on the month. 43.8% pay Anthropic and 40.6% pay OpenAI. This counts customers, not dollars. Covers Ramp's card-spending customers, not all US businesses.
Index · Source: Ramp (published October 14, September data)
Total spend and who drives it
RAMP AI INDEX · OCTOBER 2026Total AI spend hit a new peak in early October, about 1.5% above August's peak. Ramp says 80% of OpenAI and Anthropic spend comes from 1% of firms, and that its adoption metric may be losing value because most businesses already pay for AI.
Index · Source: Ramp
Spend versus usage
RAMP COMMENTARYCoverage of Ramp's report says token volume keeps rising while token spend has barely grown for two months, and attributes that to falling prices. Ramp's lead economist is quoted saying it feels like the top of the S-curve. We haven't seen this in Ramp's written report, so treat it as reported.
Reported · Source: ExplainX
What enterprise spend looks like at one lab
ANTHROPIC S-1About $13.1B, or roughly 80%, of Anthropic's first-half 2026 revenue was usage-based enterprise fees. Nearly half of revenue flows through Amazon, Google and Microsoft marketplaces, and the top five customers were about 25%. Much of it lacks long-term commitments: customers can reduce usage or terminate with limited notice, and remaining contracted obligations were about $10.8B.
Reported · Source: Fortune on the S-1
Our coverage
Households paying for AI
CONSUMERAs of April 2026, 2.2% of US households paid for any AI service, per a16z's analysis of PNC transaction data. Average monthly spend among payers rose from $22 to $31 over two years. The same report found 69% of S&P 500 companies have a live AI deployment but only 2% disclose a metric they track over time.
Reported · Source: Our article
Measuring what spend buys
CLAUDE ENTERPRISE · OCTOBER 28, 2026Anthropic made smart reports generally available for Claude Enterprise. They sample a team's transcripts, group the work, attach list-price spend, and include a task outcomes section and a count of sessions that produced nothing usable. Off by default. Each organization gets 10 free reports a month. This is a measurement tool, not a data point on spending.
Reported · Source: Unite.AI
What's missing. We haven't found a public measure of how much business AI spend produces a result a company would pay for again. Anthropic's new reports aim at that inside one company, but nothing aggregates it. We'll add one if it appears.
Missing a source or see an error? Email info@stateofinference.com.