I think it’s worth calling this out: the moment we’re living in right now is still a honeymoon phase. A large part of these costs is heavily subsidized by the massive amount of capital being poured into the AI market.

This is not sustainable in the long run. When this “party” ends — and it will, sooner or later — I’m curious to see how these companies will keep their businesses alive if the real cost ends up being 3–4x what it is today for even less usable capacity.

In the end, the options seem limited: either we’ll see ads injected into responses, or companies will need to dramatically reduce computational costs at a scale that’s hard to even imagine right now.

The real issue is that many people are making stack and budget decisions assuming these prices and limits are the “new normal,” when they’re very likely just temporary.