Fireside Alpha(@firesidealpha):OpenAI reveals its median researcher now burns more than $600 a day of inference, with the 90th percentile above $7,000. "At the start of this year, the median researcher ranked by agent usage at OpenAI was using coding agents only in modest amounts." "By mid-August, the median researcher was integrating agents daily into their work, using more than $600 per day of inference at API prices." "The 90th percentile user in our research organization now uses more than $7,000 of tokens per day."

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Fireside Alpha@firesidealpha

2026.09.06 17:05

OpenAI reveals its median researcher now burns more than $600 a day of inference, with the 90th percentile above $7,000. "At the start of this year, the median researcher ranked by agent usage at OpenAI was using coding agents only in modest amounts." "By mid-August, the median researcher was integrating agents daily into their work, using more than $600 per day of inference at API prices." "The 90th percentile user in our research organization now uses more than $7,000 of tokens per day."