vendor bill
Model and token bill
0% to 0.07% of the quarter’s revenue
Incremental total: counts in full.
our inferencedisclosure: bounded· motive: exploratory· before LLMs: new
The CFO volunteered the bill this quarter: token expense was a trivial number for the first half of the year, a meaningful acceleration is forecast for the second half, the full-year contribution is still trivial and partly budgeted, and the raised expense outlook does not rest on it. The firm routes work to the right model and uses open source where it suffices. The size shown is the ledger’s own estimate, , a share of revenue excluding the Visa and equity-investment gains () taken from the ledger’s readings of other buyers’ AI vendor bills; the word trivial is consistent with the range and does not set it.
Evidence: 6 quotes, 3 figures, 2 confounds, 1 from before coverage
What the firm pays outside model providers for tokens, model access and model testing. The CFO calls it token expense; it sits inside the technology, communications and equipment line or professional and outside services, and neither is split.
Why this motive
The CFO calls token expense trivial, budgeted and something the firm is spending time on, says the firm lags the cutting edge of adoption by design, and stresses using cheaper or open-source models where they suffice (claims c11, c13 and c15): a cost being studied for later, the exploratory tell.
Before LLMs: new
The anchor names data, cloud computing and technology vendors and no model or token bill; technology, communications and equipment expense was for FY2024 with no AI share named. A token bill could not exist without LLMs, so the channel is new whatever the anchor says.
“JPMorganChase also depends on its ability to access and use the operational systems of third parties, including its custodians, vendors (such as those that provide data and cloud computing services, and security and technology services) and other market participants”
Figures
- Technology, communications and equipment expense · 2026-CQ2
- Technology, communications and equipment expense growth, year over year · 2026-CQ2
- Total net revenue excluding the Visa and equity-investment gains · 2026-CQ2
What else could explain it
- line composition: The bill sits inside the technology line or professional and outside services, which also carry software, cloud, communications and auto lease depreciation.
- bundling: Model access may be bought inside cloud or software agreements and never billed as tokens.
Quotes
“is the question of token expense. That is something that we're spending a bunch of time on, I think as probably pretty much everyone in corporate America is. Just for the avoidance of doubt, it is a trivial number for the first half of the year. We are forecasting some meaningful acceleration in that number for the second half of the year.”
“Still, nonetheless, the full year contribution of that is still trivial, and obviously we had budgeted some of that, so it's not in any way a meaningful driver of the current outlook or to the revision of the outlook.”
“We're, in a sense, like a representation of the economy as a whole, that we're probably lagging a little bit some of the cutting edge adoption and usage as we should given who we are as a company.”
“I think the good news is that we've done a lot of really high quality thinking on this, and a lot of the infrastructure that we've built over the last couple of years is going to position us to be quite sophisticated about using the right models for the right purpose.”
“As you know, the tools are quite good at doing that, and you really don't need the latest cutting edge incredibly expensive model to summarize an analyst report. The idea is use the right model for the right purpose, be smart about open source where appropriate, and ensure that you're getting value out of it ultimately.”
“higher investments in technology across the LOBs and Corporate and marketing in CCB,”
By quarter
- Q1 2026described · our inference · exploratory · $2.5mn to $37mn
- Q2 2026bounded · our inference · exploratory · $2.6mn to $38mn