"80% of the economic value of LLMs come from 20% of the tokens"

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.

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. Sam Altman said AI budgeting has recently become a "huge issue" for some companies, something that "never came up" earlier this year. bit.ly/4uxIGnv https://bit.ly/4uxIGnv Last edited Jun 4, 2026 · 11:35 AM UTC /PeterBerezinBCA/status/2062498419478782163/history 18 19 106 18,465