Jevons paradox, in the wild: OpenAI's price cuts made usage spike 13.8x
Real-world Jevons paradox: when OpenAI slashed Terra and Luna prices for 19 days, daily token usage jumped 5.6x and 13.8x, while the undiscounted Sol model barely moved (1.1x). Rivals, not other OpenAI models, gave up most of the share. It wasn't a promo blip either: 32% of 100K+ trial users kept using the models after discounts expired, with post-program token volume at 1.38x the discount-period average.