OpenAI's token efficiency may stem from training budget awareness

teortaxesTex · x · 2026-08-27

Addressing why OpenAI's models (like Luna) use 40% fewer tokens than peers (e.g., dsv4-flash, glm5.3-flash), TeortugasTex speculates it relates to their response to effort control. He hypothesizes OpenAI burns significant compute on training "budget awareness" during training, acting as an implicit length penalty, ensuring users get strictly more by paying more while maintaining high efficiency.

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