OpenAI has pulled most of Replit's AI spending away from Anthropic after cutting its price by more than 30% on a contract worth over $100 million a year, The Information reported. Anthropic had declined to extend the discount Replit previously received unless the coding platform committed to spending more, according to the report.
The Replit deal is one of several data points showing OpenAI using price to win large AI coding customers from Anthropic. At Rippling, the HR software company, Anthropic models handled 57% of the coding work done by hundreds of engineers in May, while OpenAI models handled 16%. Those shares have since reversed, with OpenAI at 52% and Anthropic at 18%.
OpenAI also offered DataCamp a 40% discount to use Codex, according to coverage of the report. The Information's piece, by Laura Bratton and Stephanie Palazzolo, ran under the headline "Anthropic's Margin is OpenAI's Opportunity."
Key facts
- 01OpenAI gave Replit more than 30% off an AI contract worth over $100M a year, The Information reported.
- 02Anthropic declined to extend Replit's earlier discount without a higher spending commitment.
- 03At Rippling, OpenAI's share of coding work rose from 16% in May to 52%; Anthropic's fell from 57% to 18%.
- 04OpenAI is now the default model provider for Replit Agent; Claude models remain available if customers select them.
- 05Replit CEO Amjad Masad said enterprise contracts went from about 2% of revenue last year to about 15% this year.
Replit's switch first surfaced on October 16, when CEO and co-founder Amjad Masad said onstage at a San Francisco conference that the company was no longer working with Anthropic. Masad said the decision came down to cost, the partnership and performance, and pointed to Replit's internal benchmark.
“It was a decision based on both cost, partnership, and performance.”— Amjad Masad, Replit CEO and co-founder
In a follow-up statement, Masad said Replit "remains model agnostic." OpenAI is now the default model provider for Replit Agent, and customers who want Anthropic's Claude models have to select them. Masad also said that in Replit's testing, OpenAI's Sol and Astra models perform better at building vibe-coded applications from scratch.
“OpenAI is now our preferred partner for powering Replit Agent”— Amjad Masad, Replit CEO and co-founder
The change is not a full exit from Claude. Replit's documentation still lists seven Claude models, and a late-September Replit blog post said Claude Fable 5 and 5.1 were running in Replit Agent's production environment.
The default setting is what moves the money, because most Replit customers keep it. Until recently, Replit was one of Anthropic's top five customers. Replit announced its OpenAI partnership in August after relying on Claude models to run its platform.
The reports did not include a statement from Anthropic on the Replit contract or the Rippling figures.
Replit's own customer base is shifting toward larger buyers. Masad said enterprise contracts made up about 2% of Replit's revenue last year and about 15% this year, with more than half of revenue now coming from business customers. He said he expects enterprise and government customers to account for more than half of Replit's revenue in 2027.
Working on something we should cover, or seeing a story we missed? Send leads, documents, or feedback to hello@aichatdaily.com. For sensitive tips, see our secure tips page for Signal and PGP options.
Spotted an error? Email hello@aichatdaily.com with the URL and the issue, or read our full corrections policy.
