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Macroeconomic Indicators & Trends
June 12, 2026
Cheaper Tokens, Bigger Bills
About the Author
Torsten<br>Slok
Partner, Chief Economist
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The Silicon Data Token Expenditure Index, which tracks total spending on large language model usage, has roughly doubled since late 2025 even as the price of a single token has fallen more than 90% since 2023.<br>This is Jevons paradox in action. As tokens get cheaper, companies don't spend less but instead run more AI agents, automate more workflows and generate more code, pushing aggregate expenditure higher even as the unit cost of intelligence collapses.
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Note: The Silicon Data LLM Token Expenditure Index measures the effective cost of using large language models (LLMs), expressed as the price per million tokens. A rising index indicates higher spending on Al model usage, while a falling index suggests declining inference costs. Sources: Bloomberg, Macrobond, Apollo Chief Economist
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Disclosures
This presentation may not be distributed, transmitted or otherwise communicated to others in whole or in part without the express consent of Apollo Global Management, Inc. (together with its subsidiaries, “Apollo”).\r\n\r\nApollo makes no representation or warranty,...