Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan Says He Spends Up to $200,000 a Year on AI Tokens

Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan said he spends about $100,000 to $200,000 a year on tokens for AI agents, describing the cost as a barrier to wider use. He made the comments on an episode of Walter Isaacson’s podcast The Builders.

Tan uses agents for work projects and coding, and shared 23 Claude Code skills in a set called gstack on GitHub. He also said an agent helps him prepare for Isaacson’s podcast. The agent has read his email, Dropbox and Apple Notes, including therapy notes going back 20 years, he said.

Tan, an early OpenClaw adopter, said users should not treat AI agents like traditional software. He described them as tools that can act with more autonomy and assist with everyday tasks. Y Combinator uses an internal agent called Stray Light, which Tan said has a personality and a “company brain” containing context about founders the organization has backed, people who have emailed it and applications.

Tan said personal AI agents could become mainstream if costs fall. He called his own spending a “crazy privilege” that not everyone can afford. He also said he would like people to have personal AI that they control and program, rather than relying on agents controlled by large technology companies.