- Anthropic’s enterprise customers are increasingly choosing cheaper models over the flagship Fable 5.
- More than two months after launch, it accounts for only about 11% of companies’ total spending on Anthropic tools.
- Demand for cheaper models could reshape the economics of the AI industry ahead of Anthropic’s IPO.
Anthropic’s flagship model — Claude Fable 5 — has failed to replicate the earlier success of the most powerful AI solutions among enterprise customers, as companies increasingly opt for cheaper alternatives. According to payments company Ramp, which analyzed spending by 70,000 companies, more than two months after launch Fable 5 accounts for only about 11% of customers’ total spending on Anthropic tools, FT reports.
Business Is Choosing Cheaper Models
The data points to a shift in behavior among enterprise customers, who previously were more likely to move to the most powerful available models. One of the main drivers of this shift is Fable 5’s high price, while earlier Anthropic versions can handle most typical business tasks.
Recall that Claude Opus 4.8 was positioned as more affordable and efficient.
“Most people don’t need to operate at the frontier,” said Accel partner Miles Clements.
He said the period when customers mostly chose flagship models “was not a sustainable era.”
Companies’ choices are also being shaped by the emergence of cheaper open-weight models from Chinese and other developers. Meanwhile, after a weak start to 2026, OpenAI’s position has begun to strengthen.
According to sources close to the company, OpenAI’s annualized revenue run rate for the current quarter rose 35% and surpassed $40 billion. The catalyst was the launch of GPT 5.6 in July. Its cost is significantly lower than Fable 5’s.
Another telling example is Claude Opus 5. Although this model is cheaper than Fable 5, after its launch in late July it has already overtaken Anthropic’s flagship in terms of enterprise spending, Ramp data shows.
Anthropic Continues to Grow Rapidly Despite Weaker Demand for Fable 5
The launch of Fable 5 in early June was also accompanied by political issues. The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump forced Anthropic to withdraw the model, citing national security concerns. The relaunch took place on July 1 after the relevant approval.
However, political factors are now playing a secondary role in model selection. According to analysts and investors, price and performance have become more important for enterprise customers.
An additional factor holding back the adoption of Fable 5 was the data retention rules introduced by the Trump administration, said Ramp chief economist Ara Kharazian.
Even so, Anthropic continues to post rapid growth:
- In July, the company’s annual revenue run rate reached $65 billion, up from $47 billion in May
- Since the start of the year, the metric has risen by nearly sevenfold
- In Q2, Anthropic posted an adjusted operating profit for the first time
- The company expects to remain profitable in Q3 as well
Anthropic has around 6,000 customers that spend at least $100,000 a year.
At the same time, the July result came in below the most optimistic investor forecasts, which expected the annual sales run rate to exceed $80 billion.
The situation takes on particular significance ahead of Anthropic’s expected stock market debut, which investors could value at at least $2 trillion. Weaker demand for the company’s most expensive model raises questions about how efficient the economics of scaling AI development will be if enterprise customers increasingly opt for cheaper solutions.
Kharazian noted that forecasting the company’s trajectory even a few months ahead is extremely difficult.
“If you impute previous trends you expect Anthropic to own the market. But because [OpenAI’s newest model] was so good and Fable underperformed, it’s been the reverse,” he said.
Earlier, we wrote that Chinese startup Z.ai released the GLM-5.2 AI model, which is six times cheaper than comparable offerings from OpenAI and Anthropic.
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