OpenAI’s AI coding agents push researchers to spend thousands daily on tokens

OpenAI disclosed that researchers’ use of AI coding agents has surged, with the median daily token spend surpassing $600 and top users burning through more than $7,000 worth of tokens per day (as of mid‑August). The costs are based on inferred API prices and reflect how coding agents are accelerating development, debugging, and experimentation, helping OpenAI pursue a goal of an automated research intern by 2028 while highlighting concerns about cost and productivity in token-heavy workflows.