Anthropic · OpenAI · Claude · Amazon · GitHub · Meta · Decrypt
OpenAI's own testing spotted that leaner, clearer prompts scored higher while tapping fewer tokens
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Key facts
- The top model costs 100 times more than the smallest, and OpenAI's own lineup runs the same spread, from $10 to $0.10 per million input tokens
- Cheaper tokens won’t do the job alone, though: the price of a single token has dropped more than 90% since 2023, according to Silicon Data’s Token Expenditure Index, yet spending on large language
- Meta employees burned through 60 trillion AI tokens in 30 days earlier this year, chasing spots on an internal leaderboard nicknamed "Claudeonomics
- Tech columnist Gergely Orosz estimated the tab at roughly $900 million at Anthropic's list prices, though Meta likely pays far less
Summary
Anthropic's and OpenAI's top models cost 100 times more per token than their smallest ones, yet many users default to the flagship for everything. Usage leaderboards at Meta, Amazon, and Uber pushed AI bills up, and Uber burned through its 2026 AI tools budget in about four months. Routing tasks to the right model, trimming context, caching and batching cut costs sharply, but there are other techniques to save money. Meta employees burned through 60 trillion AI tokens in 30 days earlier this year, chasing spots on an internal leaderboard nicknamed "Claudeonomics. Bain & Company consultant Jue Wang sees a quieter version of that waste everywhere: "So many companies, so many users, default to using Opus for everything, including generating emails," she told the Associated Press this summer, referring to Anthropic's high-end models.