Show the cost of each AI prompt

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Topic: AI | Pricing
For: Both B2C and B2B
Research date: April 2026
Universities: Indiana University, Pennsylvania State University

📈 Recommendation

When your team uses AI tools, make sure they know how many tokens they are spending (e.g. a disclaimer saying “you’ve used 8% of your limit””)

If you sell AI tools, show how much capacity has been used, and how much each incremental prompt costs.

People will be more likely to use AI intentionally and will be more satisfied with the output (vs when they think usage is unlimited).

🎓 Findings

• Researchers tracked 1.8M+ prompts from 61,000+ users and found that when the platform made it clear how much they were consuming (vs a seemingly unlimited plan), people worked:

  • More intentionally, spending 5% more time on writing prompts, and 8% less on generating variants of the same image

  • More effectively, being more likely to rewrite and refine prompts (vs resubmitting the same one)

  • They were also more likely to show signs of satisfaction with the output (e.g. upscaling the image)

• The effect is stronger among heavy AI users

🧠 Why it works

• When we know how much we’re spending, we want more control and certainty.

• So we put more effort into our prompts and work more intentionally.

• Which makes us feel happier with the outcome.

✋ Limitations

• Satisfaction wasn’t directly measured but assumed from the users’ behavior.

• The study focused on images. The effect might differ for more objective outputs like code. Restricting usage could boost satisfaction through control, or backfire if quality standards aren't met.

👀 Real-life example

❌ Issue: Google’s Gemini for enterprise typically has no clear per-user “quotas”. Employees can’t easily track their consumption and see when they reach limits. 

✅ Solution: Google should clarify per-user usage limitations. For example:

• Give a weekly limit of tokens, and show each person how much they’re using.

• Alternatively, simply provide an indicative average cost of how much each prompt costs the company.

• Switch to a more intuitive and less abstract system than “quotas”. Instead, show the number of available prompts that are left. More intuitive measurements tend to increase sales.

📖 Research

Wang, L., Lee, H., C. B., How Costs Influence Preferences for Control in Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI): Human-Guided vs. GenAI-Based Delegated Search. Information Systems Research (April 2026).

Remember: This is a new scientific discovery. In the future it will probably be better understood and could even be proven wrong (that’s how science works). It may also not be generalizable to your situation. If it’s a risky change, always test it on a small scale before rolling it out widely.

🎁 Bonus: Trivia

Check your knowledge from previous insights (for paid Platform members only).

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🎓 It took our team of PhDs and me 13 hours to accurately turn this research into this 3-min insight. 

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