IT Engineer GenAI Spending Surges: 15,000+ JPY/Month Users Increase 2.7x YOY

INSTANTROOM's Freelance Board published the "Generative AI Utilization Survey for IT Engineers [2026]" based on 435 respondents. Key findings show generative AI spending is increasing. While 60.2% use paid plans, the high-spending tier (over 15,000 JPY/month) reached 21.0% (88 people), a 2.7x increase from 7.8% in 2025. Furthermore, 26.7% pay over 8,000 JPY/month, and 6.0% spend over 50,000 JPY/month. The dominant position of ChatGPT has collapsed, dropping from 97.5% in 2025 to 74.8%. Meanwhile, Claude usage surged from 35.3% to 57.1% (+21.8pt) and Gemini grew from 62.5% to 72.1% (+9.6pt). In the AI development support tool category, Claude Code took a commanding lead at 49.0%, followed by Codex at 26.2% and Cursor at 16.9%.