Kamal Ghorui
While Anthropic’s head of growth was busy putting out a pricing fire on X, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was, by his own admission, a couple of drinks in—and apparently in the mood to poke fun. When Amol Avasare posted a lengthy thread explaining that Claude Code hadn’t actually been removed from the $20 Pro plan, Altman’s reply was two words: “ok boomer.” Then came the follow-up: “tongiht i have had a couple of drinks.” The typo stayed. The post hit 1.1 million views.
What started the whole thing
Earlier that evening, developer George Pu flagged that Claude Code had quietly vanished from the Pro and Free columns on Anthropic’s pricing page—no announcement, just a silent edit. The implication was stark: users would need the $100-a-month Max plan to keep using it, a fivefold jump from Pro’s $20. The backlash was instant. Avasare stepped in to clarify it was a limited test affecting roughly 2% of new signups, with existing subscribers untouched. He also got candid about why Anthropic is even poking at its pricing structure: when Max launched a year ago, Claude Code wasn’t bundled in, Cowork didn’t exist, and multi-hour AI agents weren’t a daily workflow. They are now. “Our current plans weren’t built for this,” he wrote.
Altman doesn’t miss a beat
The trolling wasn’t purely recreational. Claude Code crossed $2.5 billion in annualized revenue in February 2026—more than doubling since January—and Anthropic claimed 73% of spending among new AI tool buyers, a dramatic swing from OpenAI’s 90% consumer market share just a year prior. Altman has responded methodically: Codex now has over three million weekly users, a standalone desktop app just launched, and new Pro subscribers are getting a promotional 10x usage boost through May. Every public stumble Anthropic takes is a recruiting pitch for OpenAI. On Tuesday night, Altman was happy to help write it.
