Microsoft Accused of Artificially Inflating ChatGPT Costs Through Azure Dominance

Eleven ChatGPT Plus subscribers have filed a class action against Microsoft in San Francisco federal court, alleging the tech giant manipulated Azure cloud agreements to restrict computational resources for OpenAI. The plaintiffs claim Microsoft's actions kept ChatGPT token prices artificially high—reportedly 100 to 200 times competitors' rates during a 2025 AI price war—while developing rival products.

Evidence centers on an exclusive 2019 Azure agreement that allegedly gave Microsoft control over OpenAI's compute supply. When OpenAI began purchasing resources from Google in June 2025, token prices plummeted 80% within weeks. The lawsuit seeks damages for overcharges between November 2022 and February 2025, warning Microsoft retains contractual power to throttle supply.

The case draws parallels to U.S. v. Microsoft's historic antitrust battles, framing cloud computing as the new frontier of tech monopoly power. No cryptocurrencies or exchanges were directly implicated in the alleged scheme.