The global cost of inference in both Openai and Anthropic it exceed training cost for sure.
The reason is simple: the inference cost grows with requests not with datasets. My math simplified by AI says: Suppose training GPT-like model costs
=
$
10,000,000
C
T
=$10,000,000.
Each query costs
=
$
0.002
C
I
=$0.002.
Break-even:
>
10,000,000
0.002
=
5,000,000,000
inferences
N>
0.002
10,000,000
=5,000,000,000inferences
So after 5 billion queries, inference costs surpass the training cost.
Openai claims it has 100 million users x queries = I let you judge.
No. But training an LLM is certainly very very expensive and a gamble every time you do it. I think of it a bit like a pharmaceutical company doing vaccine research…
= $ 10,000,000 C T
=$10,000,000.
Each query costs
= $ 0.002 C I
=$0.002.
Break-even:
> 10,000,000 0.002 = 5,000,000,000
inferences N> 0.002 10,000,000
=5,000,000,000inferences
So after 5 billion queries, inference costs surpass the training cost.
Openai claims it has 100 million users x queries = I let you judge.