--- title: LLM Model Cost Capability Strategy date: 2026-08-01T09:43:46+08:00 categories: - llms --- I track the cost vs capability of LLMs at [LLM Pricing](https://sanand0.github.io/llmpricing/) - the rough cost to read all Harry Potters (~1M tokens) vs the intelligence level on the [LMSYS Leaderboard](https://lmarena.ai/) - over time.

Here's what the models' strategy evolution looks like. Claude started at the mid-to-high end of the cost-capability frontier. Over time, they decided to specialize in the high-end, which they're doing well on.

Gemini began in the middle and rapidly pushed the low-end of the frontier. But now, it's focusing on the mid-end, which they're doing well on.

OpenAI has always had models that cover the entire spectrum and the widest range. But currently, they don't lead the frontier at any end.

[Fable 5](https://claude.ai/share/6fab32f4-dbfb-491b-9c1d-3144778bb231) and [GPT 5.6 Sol](https://chatgpt.com/share/6a6d5143-a278-83ec-89f1-0d8276e7b52e) helped me with the analysis based on [this data](https://sanand0.github.io/llmpricing/elo.csv).