# Ask HN: How do you know a prompt is "complex" for an AI model?

> Source: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49601670>
> Published: 2026-09-07 18:54:08+00:00

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|  |  | [Ask HN: How do you know a prompt is "complex" for an AI model?](item?id=49601670) | 
|  |  | 1 point by [faryadz](user?id=faryadz)[36 minutes ago](item?id=49601670) \|[hide](hide?id=49601670&goto=item%3Fid%3D49601670) \|[past](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Ask%20HN%3A%20How%20do%20you%20know%20a%20prompt%20is%20%22complex%22%20for%20an%20AI%20model%3F&type=story&dateRange=all&sort=byDate&storyText=false&prefix&page=0) \|[favorite](fave?id=49601670&auth=f89bcca1daa013453a7e5fcca0443073d0754970) \|[discuss](item?id=49601670) | 
|  |  | I’m trying to balance API costs and latency in my applications. Right now, I default to frontier models (Claude Sonnet) because they are reliable, but I know I’m overpaying for tasks that smaller models (like Haiku, or lite open source models) could likely handle. |