{"slug": "80-of-the-economic-value-of-llms-come-from-20-of-the-tokens", "title": "\"80% of the economic value of LLMs come from 20% of the tokens\"", "summary": "A new analysis finds that 80% of the economic value generated by large language models comes from just 20% of the tokens used. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman noted that AI budgeting has become a \"huge issue\" for some companies, a concern that \"never came up\" earlier this year. The findings suggest a long tail of token usage can be curtailed without significant productivity loss.", "body_md": "80% of the economic value of LLMs come from 20% of the tokens. There is a long tail of dubious token usage that can be greatly curtailed without much negative impact on productivity.\n\nSam Altman said AI budgeting has recently become a \"huge issue\" for some companies, something that \"never came up\" earlier this year.\n\n[bit.ly/4uxIGnv](https://bit.ly/4uxIGnv)[Last edited Jun 4, 2026 · 11:35 AM UTC](/PeterBerezinBCA/status/2062498419478782163/history)\n\n18\n\n19\n\n106\n\n18,465", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/80-of-the-economic-value-of-llms-come-from-20-of-the-tokens", "canonical_source": "https://xcancel.com/PeterBerezinBCA/status/2062498419478782163", "published_at": "2026-06-04 19:33:23+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-04 19:50:03.335723+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["large-language-models", "artificial-intelligence", "generative-ai", "ai-products", "ai-infrastructure"], "entities": ["Sam Altman"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/80-of-the-economic-value-of-llms-come-from-20-of-the-tokens", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/80-of-the-economic-value-of-llms-come-from-20-of-the-tokens.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/80-of-the-economic-value-of-llms-come-from-20-of-the-tokens.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/80-of-the-economic-value-of-llms-come-from-20-of-the-tokens.jsonld"}}