Anthropic to charge usage-based fees for top consumer AI model starting July 12

Anthropic will begin charging usage-based fees for access to its top consumer AI model, Claude Fable 5, starting July 12 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Subscribers on the company’s $20, $100, and $200 monthly plans will incur additional costs: $10 for every million tokens sent to the model and $50 for every million tokens generated in response.

The pricing structure mirrors the rates charged to developers via Anthropic’s API. For example, a subscriber sending one million tokens to Fable 5 and receiving one million tokens in response would owe an additional $60, bringing their total monthly bill to $80. Anthropic spokesperson Reem Ateyeh stated the company aims to return Fable 5 to subscription plans 'when sufficient capacity allows,' though no timeline was provided.

The shift to usage-based billing aligns with broader industry trends. Last year, AI coding startups like Cursor moved from unlimited subscriptions to usage-based pricing. Anthropic has also recently applied usage-based fees to large business customers, citing computational constraints and preparation for a planned initial public offering.

Anthropic’s decision reflects growing concerns about the sustainability of flat-rate subscriptions amid rising demand for computationally intensive AI models, such as those used in agentic workflows. Nick Turley, OpenAI’s former head of ChatGPT and current enterprise products lead, previously compared unlimited AI plans to 'unlimited electricity plans,' suggesting they may no longer be viable.

The pricing change follows a promotional period during which Anthropic offered Fable 5 to subscribers at no additional cost. The company had warned in a June 7 blog post that demand for the model would be 'very high, and difficult to predict.' Interest in Fable 5 surged after the U.S. government lifted a ban on its use by foreign nationals on July 1.