Consulting giant Accenture has told many employees that the company will now only spend $29 a month per person on Claude. Employees subject to the cap, some of whom had been spending as much as $1,000 monthly, are scrambling to find ways to make sure they can keep spending as much as they already are.
The news is a snapshot of what continues to play out across all sorts of industries: companies have spent heavily on AI tools, and are now discovering that many users are burning or “chewing” through AI tokens at a rapid clip. In response, many companies have curbed their employees’ AI use. There is a special irony to Accenture doing much of the same, when it is a company that has encouraged its clients to invest heavily into AI.
“Claude Enterprise Users: Important Updates to Licensing and Usage Costs,” a recent internal Accenture announcement, seen by 404 Media, reads.
It says that effective October 1, Accenture introduced new changes to how Claude Enterprise costs are funded and charged. That includes centrally funding only $29 a month per person towards Claude usage.
Importantly, “all costs are consumption-based,” the announcement says. Meaning, if an employee goes over the allocated $29 — and $29 is nothing compared to the costs some Accenture employees are raking up — workers have to find a specific project or team (called a Work Breakdown Structure or WBS at Accenture) to fund the rest of the usage. Premium plans come with $250 token usage a week, but many employees are not on that plan.
In other words, if you’re an Accenture employee on Premium already, you might be okay. But if you’re on the General plan, and your usage is already high, you’re now expected to find a way to fund that AI use.
“Remember: Claude Enterprise will continue to be available based on role and business need,” the announcement adds. “Providing a WBS and obtaining a license does not guarantee indefinite or ongoing access to Claude. License allocations are reviewed periodically, and access may be reassessed based on business priorities, role requirements, usage patterns, and evolving workforce needs. As needs change, licenses may be reallocated to help ensure they are used where they provide the greatest value.”
Some employees are now trying to find a way to get upgraded to a Premium account so their projects don’t get charged for additional AI use. One Accenture employee said in an internal message viewed by 404 Media that their current usage costs exceed $500, and have for past months too. “How can I speed up the upgrade to a premium account? The upgrade appears to be blocked on the support page. This obviously has a significant impact on project costs,” the person wrote.
Another employee wrote, “Honestly, this is disappointing.” They added they use Claude Code “extensively” to build and test an “AI accelerator” that is being developed for multiple Accenture clients. Their monthly usage is usually around $500 to $1,000, they added.
A third internal message seen by 404 Media shows an Accenture employee saying their Claude access was revoked altogether.
An Accenture spokesperson told 404 Media in an email “At the foundation, we make AI available to all our people. Our approach today is to provide the right tool for the right work, and we continue to invest in AI capabilities, skills and enablement that deliver greater value for clients and our own organization.”