Simon Willison Says AI Coding Tools Have Given Anthropic and OpenAI Product-Market Fit

Independent analyst Simon Willison believes Anthropic’s Claude Code and OpenAI Codex have transformed generative AI from a chat service into a productivity tool that businesses are willing to pay for based on usage. Coding agents consume large volumes of tokens but directly support high-value work such as software development. This potential for sustained monetization is central to the two companies achieving product-market fit, or PMF.

On May 27, 2026, Willison said he paid each company $100 per month. Priced at API rates, his usage over the previous 30 days would have cost about $1,199.79 for Claude Code and $980.37 for Codex. OpenAI switched to token-based pricing on April 2. Uber exhausted its full-year AI budget within the first few months of 2026.