[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"scribble-in-ai-being-cheaper-will-not-help-to-win-104ff8bb":3},{"id":4,"title":5,"user_id":6,"is_anonymous":7,"tags":8,"created_at":21,"updated_at":21,"storage_path":22,"is_public":23,"linked_scribbles":24,"previous_scribble":25,"next_scribble":25,"is_draft":7,"related_scribbles":26,"slug":27,"author_name":28,"author_username":29,"body":30,"linked_articles":31,"related_articles":32,"reverse_relation_map":65},"104ff8bb-d865-4eef-8380-63ea42b2f2d5","In AI, being cheaper will not help to Win","ff91778b-54c7-4d14-8f0c-9652e6b5021a",false,[9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20],"aritificial intelligence","AI","Deepseek","ChatGPT","OpenAI","AI cost","AI spending","AI infrastructure","LLM","LLM pricing","AI pricing","enterprise AI","2025-12-31T06:50:21.080908+00:00","ff91778b-54c7-4d14-8f0c-9652e6b5021a/3f06dd60-7eb7-4710-b17a-26eb5a5bc36d.md",true,[],null,[],"in-ai-being-cheaper-will-not-help-to-win-104ff8bb","Itih","itih","I saw the pricing comparison. DeepSeek costs $0.07 per million input tokens. OpenAI's GPT-5 costs $5 per million tokens on input.\n\nThat's 70x cheaper. For the output tokens, it's even worse for OpenAI. $0.28 vs $20. That's 70x cheaper again.\n\nFor certain use cases like customer support chatbots, DeepSeek could cost $5 annually what OpenAI costs $5,000 annually.\n\nBut here's what's weird. DeepSeek isn't taking over the market. OpenAI is still dominant. Why?\n\nThe obvious answer is quality. OpenAI's models are (allegedly) better. But by how much? And does it matter for your use case?\n\nThe real answer is infrastructure. DeepSeek's incredibly cheap pricing comes with a cost: you have to self-host it. You manage the servers. You manage the scaling. You manage the uptime.\n\nOpenAI's expensive pricing includes managed hosting. Uptime guarantees. Support. Integration. Your engineering team doesn't have to think about infrastructure.\n\nSo for large companies with existing infrastructure teams? DeepSeek makes sense. For companies that just want something that works without hiring more engineers? OpenAI wins.\n\nThis creates two tiers of AI adoption.\n\nThe first tier is the \"premium\" tier. OpenAI, Google, Anthropic. They're selling not just models but *managed services*. Your problem goes away. You pay a premium. But it works.\n\nThe second tier is the \"DIY\" tier. DeepSeek, open-source models, self-hosted solutions. Cheap. But you have to do the engineering work.\n\nWhat's missing in the middle?\n\nCompanies that want good models at reasonable prices *without* building out infrastructure teams.\n\nI think that's the next battleground. Not \"who has the best model.\" But \"who can make their model accessible without requiring a Ph.D. in DevOps.\"\n\nAWS figured this out. Google figured this out. Microsoft figured this out. Now the question is: can they apply that to AI?\n\nThe company that makes enterprise-grade AI accessible without enterprise-grade engineering effort wins the market. Not the company with the cheapest model. Not the company with the smartest model.\n\nThe company that makes it *easy* wins.",[],[33,37,41,45,49,53,57,61],{"id":34,"title":35,"slug":36},"7ed59681-19e9-47f4-8060-9e582da41b50","Companies Deployed AI Without Checking If It Works","companies-deployed-ai-without-checking-if-it-works-7ed59681",{"id":38,"title":39,"slug":40},"360b06c6-998e-4d43-9d6b-8d349428268b","Companies Can't Keep Up with AI Model Upgrades","companies-can-t-keep-up-with-ai-model-upgrades-360b06c6",{"id":42,"title":43,"slug":44},"362c71c9-30f7-4712-a038-96a688a401fc","Developers Prefer Claude for Coding","developers-prefer-claude-for-coding-362c71c9",{"id":46,"title":47,"slug":48},"ff32877c-fcb9-4e2b-97c4-25971a2c5665","Fewer AI Graduates Exist Than Companies Actually Need","fewer-ai-graduates-exist-than-companies-actually-need-ff32877c",{"id":50,"title":51,"slug":52},"de906776-1cb7-44b4-b981-b09ec5ee1e96","$244 Billion in AI Spending Can't Be Measured","-244-billion-in-ai-spending-can-t-be-measured-de906776",{"id":54,"title":55,"slug":56},"cce057da-947a-44db-a8af-dee0f295ec88","ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini 2025: The Competitive Shift","chatgpt-vs-claude-vs-gemini-2025-the-competitive-shift-cce057da",{"id":58,"title":59,"slug":60},"8ffb2e4a-0e0f-4e6c-9d1c-dfbadd30f05d","AI Engineer Shortage Cause Companies Can't Hire","ai-engineer-shortage-cause-companies-can-t-hire-8ffb2e4a",{"id":62,"title":63,"slug":64},"b5c832c5-c537-46f9-aedf-62a4aaf12841","The AI ROI Measurement Problem","the-ai-roi-measurement-problem-b5c832c5",{}]