Gartner: AI coding agents will cost more than real developers
computerweekly.com Jun 24, 2026

Gartner: AI coding agents will cost more than real developers

AI-summarised brief · reviewed before publication

Research by Gartner Peer Insights has found that 23% of tech leaders are spending $200 to $500 per developer per month on tokens for artificial intelligence (AI) coding agents. The shift from seat-based licensing to consumption-based pricing by AI coding agent providers is introducing highly variable cost structures for software engineering workloads. Gartner warns that companies lack transparency into token consumption, limiting their ability to accurately forecast and control costs. By 2028, AI coding costs are forecasted to overtake the average developer's salary due to rising large language model token consumption.

💡 Why It Matters

  • · The rising costs of AI coding agents threaten to upend the economics of software development, forcing companies to justify the value of paying large monthly fees to support AI usage.
  • · As costs increase tenfold or even 100-fold, IT leaders must reassess their software engineering processes to identify areas where AI can be optimized and costs can be justified.