OpenAI’s Sam Altman predicts exponential growth in AI token usage, framing intelligence as a utility

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman dropped a number in June 2026 that deserves a second look. The company’s heaviest internal user now processes roughly 100 billion AI tokens every month. For context, the peak monthly consumption back in late 2019 was about 100,000 tokens. That is a one-million-fold increase in roughly six and a half years. From niche tool to something resembling a utility bill AI tokens are the basic units of text and data that large language models process when generating responses, writing code, or analyzing documents. Altman and his peers are increasingly framing AI intelligence as a metered utility, something closer to electricity than software. That 100,000-token peak from late 2019, which once represented the absolute ceiling of what anyone was doing with AI, now reflects the global per capita average. Looking ahead, Altman projects that individuals could average 500 billion tokens per month by around 2032 to 2033. Leading-edge users might consume quadrillions of tokens monthly. The $1.3 million monthly tab A single external user reportedly burned through 603 billion tokens in one month, racking up a bill of $1.3 million. That figure already exceeds the 100 billion token...