OpenAI Sends Physical Trophies to Companies for API Spending
At its DevDay 2025 conference, OpenAI unveiled something unexpected: physical trophies for API customers. Not for building innovative products or solving hard problems—for spending money on tokens.
The program, called "Tokens of Appreciation," rewards developers at three tiers: silver for 10 billion tokens, black for 100 billion, and blue for 1 trillion. According to OpenAI's official announcement, each award features "a precision-milled anodized aluminum 'token' mounted in frosted transparent resin designed to catch and diffuse the light, illuminating this major moment and reflecting our bright future together." The awards are custom-engraved with each organization's name and, per the accompanying letter, meant to display "with pride, bound to generate conversation."
OpenAI just dropped the top 30 customers who've used 1T+ of their tokens. pic.twitter.com/hoAIzrfOSZ
— Deedy (@deedydas) October 7, 2025
The trillion-token club includes Shopify, Notion, and Read.AI, among others. Some companies posted their awards with genuine enthusiasm:
@NotionHQ has processed (well over) a trillion tokens on @OpenAI, and now we have this cool token to show for it.
— Sarah Sachs (@sarahmsachs) October 6, 2025
proud to be part of @Shopify, pushing the boundaries of AI for both devs and merchants\n\nwe processed over 1T tokens with @OpenAI and I got a token of appreciation to take home 🏆 pic.twitter.com/8KqTNgIaIh
— Dani Passos (@danizeres) October 7, 2025
Read.AI's CEO took the joke-but-not-really approach:
I spent a trillon tokens on @OpenAI and all I got was this trophy. \n\nJust kidding. We're thankful for this recognition and partnership with the OAI team! Also a trillion is just the start for @ReadAI_ as 90% of our processing (tokens) are using our proprietary models.
— David Shim (@davidshim) October 7, 2025
The bit about 90% of their processing using proprietary models is doing a lot of work there. Translation: they paid for a trillion tokens from OpenAI, but most of their actual business runs on their own infrastructure. The trophy commemorates... vendor spend?
At least one developer said the quiet part out loud:
@OpenAI put my name on the 10B token list at Dev Day. Lots of you have reached out\n\nThey even gave me a fancy trophy.\n\nReality: Ada runs over 1T tokens *per month* on Azure.\n\nIt's a fun milestone but tokens are a cost, not a trophy. Make them count for your customers.
— Mike Gozzo (@gozmike) October 7, 2025
When did operational costs become something to commemorate with physical awards?
This is classic Silicon Valley marketing theater—turning routine business transactions into milestone achievements. OpenAI borrowed the playbook from YouTube's Creator Awards, except YouTube celebrates content creation that drives platform value. These trophies celebrate... being a high-value customer. It's the equivalent of your cloud provider sending you a plaque for your AWS bill.
The move makes more sense when you consider OpenAI's position. They're burning through billions in compute costs while racing to justify their valuation. Every major customer that stays locked into their API is crucial. What better way to reinforce that relationship than with a physical trophy that sits on an executive's desk, reminding them daily of their commitment to the platform?
The awards also serve another purpose: public validation. When Shopify and Notion post their trophies on social media, they're doing OpenAI's marketing for them. Each photo proves these companies aren't just testing the API—they're all-in. For potential enterprise customers watching from the sidelines, the message is clear: the serious players are here.
Still, there's something revealing about an industry where spending millions on API calls warrants a trophy, but the actual innovation—what these companies built with those tokens—barely gets mentioned. The metric being celebrated isn't product quality or user impact. It's consumption.