YC's Garry Tan uses AI agents so much, he spends up to $200K a year on tokens

Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan says he spends roughly $100,000 to $200,000 annually on AI tokens, reflecting how extensively he relies on agents for work and personal tasks. He uses them for coding, research, and preparation for interviews, but also gives them access to deeply personal records: his email, Dropbox, Apple Notes, and two decades of therapy notes. Tan describes an agent as an always-available assistant that knows its user, can act with some independence, and may anticipate needs. He has shared gstack, a collection of 23 Claude Code skills, to help others explore agent-based work.

Tan argues that agents should not be treated simply as conventional software, with strict demands for repeatability and safety that can limit their more flexible, human-like usefulness. At YC, an internal agent called Stray Light is being used to reshape operations; it has a personality and access to extensive organizational context, including founder histories, correspondence, and applications. Tan expects personal agents to become widespread, but says current prices are prohibitive and his own spending reflects unusual privilege. He also favors agents users can control and program themselves, rather than relying on free tools governed by major technology companies and their algorithms.