Apple is reportedly cutting employees' daily AI spending limits, Bloomberg says

Apple is trimming how much its employees can spend on AI tools each day, according to a Bloomberg report relayed by MacRumors and 9to5Mac on Wednesday. Apple has not commented publicly, and the details below come from Bloomberg's sources.

What was reportedly changed

Last month, Apple quietly lowered the daily AI spending limit for some engineers from $300 to $200, Bloomberg reports. Further reductions are said to be under discussion, with some engineering teams potentially dropping to $100 per day.

Groups outside engineering are described as already working under a $100 daily cap. Bloomberg says Apple has considered lowering that to as little as $25 for certain teams. Employees who need a larger allowance can reportedly ask senior leadership for an exemption.

Cheaper and on-device models

Some teams are also being encouraged to use less expensive models or to run AI on the device itself rather than through paid cloud services. According to the report, Apple employees have access to models including Anthropic's Claude, OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini. 9to5Mac notes it is not clear which tools the new limits apply to.

How much will it save?

Engineers hold the largest budgets because AI-assisted coding consumes a lot of tokens. Still, some employees told Bloomberg that few people were using the full $300 allowance, and Bloomberg says it is unclear how much Apple will actually save.

The wider context

The reported cuts arrive as John Ternus, who became CEO on September 1, is said to want a leaner organization with less hierarchy. Bloomberg also reports that Apple has brought in outside productivity consultants for some divisions, which together with the AI limits has fed employee concern about possible restructuring.

Apple's costs are climbing: in its latest quarterly report, the company said annual research and development spending rose 32 percent to a record of about $45.8 billion. As with any report based on anonymous sources, the specific figures could change, and Apple has not confirmed them.

Sources: MacRumors, 9to5Mac, Bloomberg.