Token volume explodes 25-fold as mid-tier models deliver 90% capability at 1/6 the cost
yogthos · reddit · 2026-09-06
An industry analysis argues frontier AI pricing faces a reckoning as token volume explodes 25-fold: mid-tier models now deliver about 90% of flagship capability at one-sixth the cost.
As most real-world workloads run fine on cheaper models, the premium for flagship capability gets diluted, forcing frontier labs to re-justify their pricing and reshaping inference economics.
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