Atlassian tightens tracking of staff AI use as other technology firms encourage ‘tokenmaxxing’

Some companies reportedly using leaderboards for employees who used the most AI in their work Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Software firm Atlassian has sought to tighten tracking of its staff’s AI spending by introducing “wallets” with monthly caps of up $2,000 for each employee, amid an explosion in costs at other tech companies. The move by Atlassian, which recently cited AI as part of the reason behind cutting 1,600 staff, bucks the trend of others in the tech sector who encouraged employees to use as much of the technology as possible, dubbed “tokenmaxxing”. Some companies have reportedly introduced leaderboards for employees who used the most AI in their work. Tokens refer to the measurement of a response AI gives to a prompt. OpenAI has said one token is about four characters, and something like the US Declaration of Independence amounts to 1,695 tokens. OpenAI’s flagship model, GPT-5.6 Sol, has a charge of US$5 for every 1m tokens, while Anthropic’s Claude Fable and Mythos models are US$10 for every 1m tokens. Under tokenmaxxing, the costs quickly add up. Uber reportedly blew t