Distillation Costed ~$16 Total: It's a Data-Cost Problem, Not a Training-Cost Problem
Gradio · x · 2026-09-23
Gradio broke down the bill for its rewriter distillation: $16 total. Training both models: 30 minutes and $0.75 on one A10G. Making labels: 2h37m on an A100, $6.54. Evaluating with 160 rendered images: $3.45. 80% of the cost went to data and evaluation — model distillation is a data-cost problem, not a training-cost problem. Two Gradio Spaces ship with it: Pocket Studio (any-language input, 0.8B/2B, editable rewrite, render) and Rewriter Arena (same-seed side-by-side of 9B/0.8B/2B/raw plus 40 pre-rendered comparisons).
Related event: Gradio's Distillation Project Cost Just $16, Run End-to-End by AI(2 posts)→
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