Accenture started limiting employee use of Anthropic’s Claude on October 1. The company set a $29 monthly cap after many staff members spent $1,000 on AI tokens. Employees now need to show a work breakdown to get more access. A spokesperson said, “Our approach today is to provide the right tool.”
Companies have pushed aggressively for AI at work. But the costs may have started to pile up. Accenture is said to be the latest firm that is limiting how much AI its employees use. It is believed that the company is putting a $29-a-month cap (roughly Rs 2,700) on Anthropic’s Claude for most of its staff.
As per a report from 404 Media, Accenture notified employees in an internal memo regarding the change. The memo, titled “Claude Enterprise Users: Important Updates to Licensing and Usage Costs,” said that Accenture was limiting AI use from October 1. Going forward, the report adds, employees would be limited to Anthropic's Claude Enterprise at $29 per employee per month.
While some Accenture employees are reportedly on Premium plans that include $250 (roughly Rs 23,700) in weekly token usage, many are said to be on the General plan. The report says that this has left some employees to “scramble” for ways to keep using AI the way they have in recent months. Many were reportedly consuming AI tokens worth over $1,000 (roughly Rs 94,800) each month.
Employees need to show work breakdown for more AI tokens
Though Accenture is not putting a blanket ban on AI beyond this limit. According to the report, employees who exceed the $29 allocation must provide a Work Breakdown Structure, or WBS, identifying the project or team that will fund the remaining usage.
“Providing a WBS and obtaining a license does not guarantee indefinite or ongoing access to Claude,” the memo said. “As needs change, licenses may be reallocated to help ensure they are used where they provide the greatest value.”
“At the foundation, we make AI available to all our people,” an Accenture spokesperson told the publication. “Our approach today is to provide the right tool for the right work, and we continue to invest in AI capabilities, skills and enablement that deliver greater value for clients and our own organization.”
At the same time, Accenture has expanded its AI and data workforce from 40,000 to nearly 110,000. CEO Julie Sweet recently said, “We're absorbing AI efficiencies in our business.” Last year, the company laid off about 11,000 employees, which it believed could not be “reskilled” with AI. Accenture has spent $2 billion in severance packages in the past 3 years.
The change comes as companies including Uber and Microsoft seek to control rising costs linked to workplace AI tools. Earlier this year, Uber introduced a monthly cap of $1,500 per employee for each AI coding tool after exhausting its annual AI budget within four months of 2026. On the other hand, Microsoft and Meta have reportedly restricted internal access to Claude Code.