[sprafa]

Working in the film industry and this is both true and untrue, depending on the situation. It's very hard to estimate. But yes CGI can make certain productions a lot cheaper, while a lot of films also have a ton of CGI work for superfluous reasons. Retouching the actor's faces for instace is more common than you would imagine, in the industry it's called "beauty work" and it's widespread.

[dredmorbius]

Reemphasising: CGI can be used to reduce costs. Hence, relying on "uses CGI" as a sign of either a high-budget or low-budget production isn't valid.

If you want to assess the budget, look at the budget.