AI pricing is understood now but the token is still just a cost
Open pretty much any AI pricing guide published since 2025 (including some of my old ones) and it starts the same way: pricing AI is the hardest, most unsolved problem in software and no one has figured it out.Well, I disagree by this point. The reason it still feels unsolved is one substitution people keep making, over and over and over again.Because you look at a token and that's considered the price.A token isn't a rpice.Yes, a token is what the model costs you to run an input. The output costs you more (output tokens run 3-8x input) and the outcome, the thing your customer wants from you, isn't measured in tokens at all.
- ▪Open pretty much any AI pricing guide published since 2025 (including some of my old ones) and it starts the same way: pricing AI is the hardest, most unsolved problem in software and no one has figured it out.Well, I disagree by this point
- ▪The reason it still feels unsolved is one substitution people keep making, over and over and over again.Because you look at a token and that's considered the price.A token isn't a rpice.Yes, a token is what the model costs you to run an inp
- ▪The output costs you more (output tokens run 3-8x input) and the outcome, the thing your customer wants from you, isn't measured in tokens at all.
Hacker News (AI / LLM) files mainly under ai. We currently carry 2,291 of its stories.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Open pretty much any AI pricing guide published since 2025 (including some of my old ones) and it starts the same way: pricing AI is the hardest, most unsolved problem in software and no one has figured it out.Well, I disagree by this point. The reason it still feels unsolved is one substitution people keep making, over and over and over again.Because you look at a token and that's considered the price.A token isn't a rpice.Yes, a token is what the model costs you to run an input. The output costs you more (output tokens run 3-8x input) and the outcome, the thing your customer wants from you, isn't measured in tokens at all.
…
Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Solvimon.
Discussion
0 commentsMore from Solvimon
