Lesson 4: What one answer costs, and who pays
29 min read·
Module 3 · Lesson 4 · About 50 minutes · Needs: Module 3 lessons 1 and 2 (requests a month, tokens per request) and Module 2 lesson 3 (the $0.0036 cost ceiling). No model calls and no key.
The situation
Week 3 at Northdesk. Lesson 1 turned Joel's target into 1,000,000 Ask requests a day; lesson 2 checked the 2,000 input and 500 output tokens. Ana Kowalczyk, the finance lead, wants the bill: the cost of one answer, a month, each tenant, and what is left of the $8 seat. Helen asks when our own GPUs would be cheaper.
This lesson runs the cost part of the roadmap's worked estimate, then reprices it with real, dated prices.