For SaaS players, staying relevant in the face of AI is one thing. Integrating it is another… which inevitably raises questions about the business model. In particular, in light of agentification, which appears poorly compatible with per-seat pricing.
Microsoft sketched out a form of response with Agent 365, which it plans to make available in May. The offering introduces ‘agentic users’ having their own identity, their place in the org chart… and their license.
In a different track, Salesforce has equipped Agentforce with a per-conversation billing option. This task-oriented approach is a way to anticipate the potential reduction in the number of human users. And, in a sense, the diversity of paths that could lead to a given result.
Plans Not Built for Agent-Based Usage
Anthropic also began distancing itself from seat-based pricing. It now carries less weight in its enterprise offerings. There is still a monthly per-user rate, but customers must commit to a monthly usage volume (in millions of tokens). And prepay, with no possibility of a refund in case of underutilization. The price of tokens hasn’t changed, but volume discounts are less generous. In the end, the cost goes up for many companies, especially those with variable usage.
Anthropic also took a step this week at the level of its individual plans: it briefly removed Claude Code from the Pro subscription for new users. The pricing page reflected this change, as did the documentation.
Anthropic quickly backtracked. Its growth director cited a “small test on about 2% of new subscriptions.”
The person in charge does not explain why the documentation was updated for everyone. He does acknowledge, however, that integrating a code assistant into a monthly subscription is no longer tenable. Usage has evolved significantly and these plans were not designed for it, essentially. Including the Max ($200/month/user) plan: when Anthropic launched it a year ago, Claude Code wasn’t included, Claude Cowork didn’t exist… and “agents that run for hours” hadn’t yet become a reality.
GitHub generally echoes the same sentiment. More and more users are exceeding the limits designed to guarantee the availability of GitHub Copilot, he states. Not without acknowledging that, between session length and parallelization of processing, usage often incurs costs higher than the plan prices. Consequently, he has taken several measures:
- Temporary inability to subscribe to new Pro, Pro+ and Student subscriptions
- Tightening (not quantified) of usage limits
- Removal of Claude Opus from the Pro plan
