Tesla limits employees’ AI use to a maximum of $200/week.

From July 6, 2026, Tesla has implemented a $200 per week limit on AI tools for employees. This includes most services available on the Bottle Rocket internal platform (OpenAI, Anthropic, Cursor, xAI) except xAI betas. Previously, there were no limits and engineers could spend thousands of dollars per week. Now if you want to go above that amount, you will need management sign off.

Tesla follows other companies like Accenture, Amazon, and Meta in cutting back on AI spending following a binge period. A fun fact is that employees at Tesla actually prefer using Claude instead of their internal Grok AI from xAI which highlights the disconnect between what companies invest in and what engineers actually use. Tesla is focusing their AI efforts on areas such as self driving robotaxis and the humanoid robot Optimus.