WSJ: OpenAI is gaining ground on Anthropic as the AI price war heats up

#What happened

The Wall Street Journal reports that OpenAI is narrowing Anthropic's lead in business AI spend, based on two new data points.

First, OpenRouter — owned by Stripe — analyzed roughly 120,000 companies using Anthropic and OpenAI tools. It found spending share was roughly even between the two in September, versus Anthropic commanding about three-quarters at the start of the year.

Second, fintech Ramp's economist Ara Kharazian looked at data from 70,000 customers in mid-September and saw businesses spending more on OpenAI models than on Anthropic's for the first time since December — though Anthropic was back on top by a slim margin by the end of that week.

#Why it happened

OpenAI stoked the price war in June with the GPT-5.6 lineup (Sol, Terra, Luna), built for cost efficiency. It cut GPT-5.6 Luna's price by 80% and Terra's by 20% after launch.

Retool CEO David Hsu says GPT-5.6 was the main catalyst for his company switching mostly to OpenAI, estimating roughly 20% less spend than on Anthropic models.

Another push factor: Anthropic's Fable 5 keeps user data for 30 days for trust and safety, which Hsu's company could not accept — so they never used Fable.

#Why it matters

OpenAI says 2.5 million businesses now use its products. Both companies are heading toward IPOs — Anthropic as soon as November, OpenAI likely next year — so demonstrating sustainable revenue to justify trillion-plus valuations is the immediate stakes.

In late September, Anthropic countered with the Claude 5.5 family, promising lower cost and better efficiency, so the lead can flip again.

Source: The Wall Street Journal — "The AI Price War Is Heating Up—and OpenAI Is Gaining Ground on Anthropic" (report).

Verified October 7, 2026.