# The AI Cost Explosion: Why Token Prices Fell 96% from 2022 to 2026 — Yet Bills Grew 40×

> Source: https://sukruyusufkaya.com/en/learn/token-ekonomisi/ai-maliyet-patlamasi-2022-2026-trend
> Updated: 2026-05-14T14:44:10.023Z
> Category: Token Ekonomisi & LLM Cost Optimization
> Module: Module 0: Why Cost, Why Now?
**TLDR:** Token prices got ~26× cheaper from 2022 to 2026 (GPT-3.5 $20/M → Sonnet 4.6 $3/M, Haiku 4.5 $1/M). Yet companies' AI invoice line grew ~40× on average. Solving this paradox is the foundational question of the entire course.