Analyst claims OpenAI's published figure is just API pricing, real cost may be 5-10x lower

scaling01 · x · 2026-09-09

scaling01 disputes an OpenAI cost figure, arguing it "is just API prices" and that the real cost to OpenAI could be 5-10x lower—meaning the uncertainty interval likely includes a true cost of up to $1M. The post suggests a wide gap between public API pricing and actual internal compute costs.

Related event: OpenAI researchers burn $600+ daily in tokens, top decile over $7,000(5 posts)→

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