Science & Tech · AI · 3 hrs ago
Y Combinator’s Garry Tan says he spends up to $200,000 a year on AI agents
Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan says he spends $100,000 to $200,000 a year on AI tokens to use AI agents.
He relies on them for coding, work projects and preparing for an interview, and says one agent has access to his emails, files and notes.
His startup accelerator also uses an internal agent called Stray Light to draw on information about founders, applicants and people who have contacted the organization.
Tan says agents can take on tasks with some independence and adapt to the person using them.
He believes lower costs are needed for personal AI agents to reach more people, because his spending is beyond what most can afford.
He also argues that people should be able to control and program their own AI, rather than depend on agents run by large technology companies.
Tan expects personal agents to become mainstream, but the sources do not say when costs might fall or what will happen next.
Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan says he spends about $100,000 to $200,000 a year on AI tokens.
He uses AI agents for work projects, coding tasks, research and managing parts of his daily life.
Tan says an agent has read his email, Dropbox, Apple Notes and therapy notes going back 20 years.
Y Combinator also uses an internal agent called Stray Light, which Tan says has context on founders, emails and applications.
Tan says AI agents are too expensive for widespread use and that costs need to come down.
- Who
- Garry Tan, CEO of Y Combinator.
- What
- He says he spends about $100,000 to $200,000 a year on AI tokens and uses agents for work and personal tasks.
- When
- He discussed his spending on an episode of The Builders podcast set to publish on Tuesday.
- Where
- Not stated.
- Why
- Tan uses AI agents for work projects, coding, research and help with daily life.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
Tan jokingly admitted that he had suffered from “cyber psychosis” and sometimes barely slept because of his excitement about working with AI agents.
An episode of Walter Isaacson’s podcast The Builders featuring Tan was set to publish.
- Annual AI-token spending
- About $100,000–$200,000
- Internal Y Combinator agent
- Stray Light
- Tan’s shared agent skills
- 23 Claude Code skills called gstack
- Podcast
- The Builders, hosted by Walter Isaacson
What people are saying
I spend about maybe $100[,000]-$200,000 a year on tokens
It’s too expensive right now
I spend about maybe $100[,000]-$200,000 a year on tokens