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prependtoday at 5:29 PM6 repliesview on HN

> $2,180.16 worth of tokens for $200

“Tokens” don’t have an intrisic cost or value. Saying that I used $2,180.16 worth of tokens is like relying on the salesperson to convince me I’m getting a billion dollars worth of pots and pans for $19.99.

I think it’s funny how we are throwing critical thinking out the window when it comes to evaluating biased sources of info.


Replies

simonwtoday at 5:31 PM

I'm not sure what you're pushing back against here.

I spent $200. If I had been paying API pricing it would have been $2,180.16. The article is about how enterprise customers get charged API pricing, which means if I had been employed by one of those companies I would have cost them $2,180.16.

What am I missing?

show 5 replies
troyastorinotoday at 5:33 PM

Tokens do have a clearly calculable intrinsic cost. There's the marginal cost of production (i.e. the inference cost) and the amortized R&D cost that goes into the model producing them.

Yes, value is hard to calculate, but luckily market pricing mechanisms exist exactly for this purpose. There isn't a better number to use than what people are willing to pay for them.

So he's saying that on an enterprise plan, he'd be spending $2,180.16. He's not paying that much, but enterprises are.

jfrbfbreudhtoday at 6:03 PM

Lol. They obviously have intrinsic cost, the floor being the cost of electricity. It’s hilarious how we are throwing critical thinking out the window when it comes to evaluating biased sources of info.

john_strinlaitoday at 5:37 PM

a little critical thinking led me to read that sentence as $2180 worth of tokens [at current api pricing]

FergusArgylltoday at 5:43 PM

I think it's funnier that you can believe some things have an intrinsic cost and others don't

dylan604today at 5:31 PM

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