Microsoft tells employees to stop tokenmaxxing as it switches to OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol
Follow UsMicrosoft says employees should focus on AI outcomes rather than maximising token usage through GitHub Copilot.
GPT-5.6 Sol was reportedly chosen because it offers better cost efficiency than some rival AI models.
Amazon, Meta, Adobe, Uber and other firms are also tightening AI usage as enterprise AI costs continue to rise.
Microsoft is reportedly asking employees to use AI more efficiently instead of consuming the maximum possible computing resources. As per a 404 Media report, the company has internally urged staff to avoid tokenmaxxing even as it adopts OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol as the default AI model for employees. With this, the company wants to keep AI spending under control while continuing to expand the use of gen AI across their businesses.
SurveyIn an internal memo, Microsoft executive vice president Jay Parikh reportedly told employees that the company wants them to focus on the quality of outcomes rather than the number of AI tokens they consume through GitHub Copilot. For the unversed, tokens are the basic units AI models use to process prompts and generate responses, meaning more complex or frequent requests generally result in higher costs.
Parikh also said that Microsoft’s objective is not to reduce AI usage altogether but to generate greater value from every token spent. The memo also stated GPT 5.6 Sol was selected because it delivers better value for Microsoft’s AI investment and is believed to be more cost-effective than some competing models, including Anthropic’s Claude family.
The report also claims that Microsoft has introduced updated internal Copilot guidelines that include AI token budget targets for business divisions. The employees are said to be able to monitor their individual AI usage, but no formal personal spending limits have reportedly been enforced yet. Internal data cited in the memo suggests some engineers consume AI tokens worth hundreds to thousands of dollars every month.
Not only Microsoft, companies like Amazon, Uber, Adobe, Atlassian and Citi have reportedly introduced measures to reduce AI related expenses, while Meta previously implemented internal token budgets and discontinued its “Claudeonomics” leaderboard.
