Gartner Predicts AI Coding Costs Will Surpass Average Developer's Salary by 2028 as Token Consumption Surges
Gartner, Wednesday, June 24th, 2026
Gartner predicts AI coding tool costs will exceed the average developer salary by 2028 as token use surges.
Gartner forecasts that by 2028 AI coding costs will overtake the average developer's salary, driven by rising LLM token consumption and consumption-based licensing.
AI coding bills are jumping from $20 to $100 per month to $2,000 or even $5,000, with 6% of organizations already paying over $2,000 per developer monthly.
The shift from seat-based to consumption-based pricing creates highly variable, hard-to-forecast costs amid vendor opacity.
Gartner warns token discipline will not emerge from developer choice alone and that a governed engineering operating model is needed to prevent costs outpacing productivity gains.