By Hamza Faisal

Apple has quietly tightened the purse strings on its employees' use of artificial intelligence, cutting the daily spending allowance for some engineers from $300 to $200 last month, according to a Bloomberg report published on Wednesday. The move comes as the iPhone maker tries to rein in costs even as it pushes AI tools deeper into its everyday operations.

The budgets cover AI "tokens" — the metered units of data that models process when they read and generate text — across outside services including OpenAI's ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude and Google's Gemini. Engineers have the largest allowances because AI-assisted coding can burn through tokens quickly, but the report says few staff were actually using their full $300 daily limit, so the immediate savings may be modest.

Deeper cuts are on the table

Further reductions are under consideration, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. Some engineering teams could see their daily allowance fall again to $100.

Many groups outside engineering already work under a $100 daily cap, and Apple has considered cutting that to as little as $25 for some teams. Employees who need more access to do their jobs would be able to seek exemptions from senior leadership, according to the report.

Apple is also asking some teams to use less expensive models or switch to on-device AI where possible, according to MacRumors' account of the report — a shift that would keep more processing on the device itself rather than paying per token to outside providers.

Cost discipline under a new chief

The belt-tightening fits a broader cost-control push under chief executive John Ternus, who took over on September 1. Bloomberg has previously reported that Ternus wants to reduce corporate hierarchy and bloat, and in September it reported he was dismissing engineering program managers as part of an effort to run Apple leaner.

The timing is striking because Apple is simultaneously expanding its AI ambitions. The company reported record September-quarter revenue of $114.5 billion in its first earnings report under Ternus, and it has begun a long-delayed trial rollout of Apple Intelligence features in China. The internal budget cuts suggest that even a company of Apple's scale is watching what its own AI habit costs.

Apple did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

A wider industry squeeze

Apple is not alone in rethinking what AI tools cost. Across the industry, companies that rushed to hand staff powerful AI assistants are now auditing the bills. Goldman Sachs recently restricted access to some AI coding tools for traders and bankers after a review of productivity and risk, keeping them for engineers — a reminder that the first wave of enterprise AI adoption came with open taps, and the second wave comes with meters.

For Apple, the message to staff is measured rather than drastic. A $200 daily allowance still buys an enormous amount of AI output by most workplaces' standards. But the direction is clear: the era of unlimited AI spending inside big tech is giving way to budgets, approvals and trade-offs — even at the company that can most afford it.