{"slug": "the-price-is-wrong-ai-cost-calculation-has-to-consider-task-completion-rates-not", "title": "The price is wrong: AI cost calculation has to consider task completion rates, not just token costs", "summary": "A new analysis argues that AI cost calculations should factor in task completion rates rather than just token costs, warning that cheaper models may lead to higher expenses if they fail to complete tasks accurately.", "body_md": "### MOST POPULAR\n\n[AI](https://beta.theregister.com/tag/ai)\n\n-\nsystems\n\n#### Zuck's AI ambitions put Meta on course to become America's next big cloud provider\n\nRenting out spare compute is simply the natural progression for any sufficiently large infra company\n\n-\nAI and ML\n\n#### The price is wrong: AI cost calculation has to consider task completion rates, not just token costs\n\nCheap can be expensive\n\n-\nai and ml\n\n#### Microsoft chief turns hostile on frontier AI labs, warns companies to guard their IP\n\nLock it down, warns Satya Nadella, seemingly forgetting the billions Redmond chipped in to OpenAI back in the good old days\n\n-\nAI + ML\n\n#### Memory makers are slaves to the boom-bust rollercoaster, and the AI boom is the wildest ride of all\n\nThe RAMpocalypse may be the precursor to the AIpocalypse\n\n-\nAI + ML\n\n#### AI customers are coming around to the idea that small is beautiful\n\nOpenAI and Anthropic have built AI Swiss Army Knives, but the future may be smaller built-for-purpose tools\n\n[Infosec](https://beta.theregister.com/security)\n\n-\nSecurity\n\n#### Russians are posing as Signal support to launch phishing attacks\n\nPLUS: US takes down Iranian propaganda sites; Marketing company asks 'Why Do We Have Your Information?' And more!\n\n-\nSecurity\n\n#### Microsoft patches failed to fix on-prem SharePoint, which is now under zero-day attack\n\nPLUS: China upgrades smartphone surveillance tools; Ring eases anti-snooping stance; and more\n\n-\nBlack Hat and DEF CON\n\n#### DEF CON Franklin project enlists hackers to harden critical infrastructure\n\nVoting village reports have been so successful, says Jeff Moss, that the whole of DEF CON will now be included\n\n-\nSecurity\n\n#### EQT buys majority share in Swiss cybersecurity biz Acronis\n\nWent at equivalent of $3.5B+ valuation for entire firm, though portion sold not specified\n\n-\nMalware Month\n\n#### Ten years since the first corp ransomware, Mikko Hyppönen sees no end in sight\n\nOn the plus side, infosec's a good bet for a long, stable career\n\n[FOSS](https://beta.theregister.com/tag/FOSS)\n\n-\n#### Cinnamon 6.8 will support Wayland – if you want it\n\nNext version of Linux Mint’s desktop has both kinds of display server\n\n-\n#### KDE Plasma users face a dire omen of change: 6.6.6 arrives\n\n6.7 is now current, and in 6.8 you're getting Wayland whether you like it or not\n\n-\n#### Collabora releases CODE 26.04 as rivalry between FOSS cloudy office suites heats up\n\nNow with Markdown support and smarter formula error handling – plus integrated AI, though it's off by default\n\n-\n#### Blast from the past as GIMP 0.54 is revived in Flatpak form\n\nRetro-computing fun for the nostalgic with first (and last) release to use Motif instead of GTK\n\n-\n#### Bcachefs exits experimental status in new 'performance release'\n\nMore Rust, but more trouble with AI slop, too\n\n-\n#### France's digital sovereignty push is struggling to escape the Microsoft gravity well\n\nNextcloud rollout shows locally controlled storage is one thing; getting users off Office is quite another", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-price-is-wrong-ai-cost-calculation-has-to-consider-task-completion-rates-not", "canonical_source": "https://www.theregister.com/ai-and-ml/2026/07/13/the-price-is-wrong-ai-cost-calculation-has-to-consider-task-completion-rates-not-just-token-costs/5270683", "published_at": "2026-07-13 19:26:24+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-14 00:39:30.481442+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-tools", "ai-products"], "entities": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-price-is-wrong-ai-cost-calculation-has-to-consider-task-completion-rates-not", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-price-is-wrong-ai-cost-calculation-has-to-consider-task-completion-rates-not.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-price-is-wrong-ai-cost-calculation-has-to-consider-task-completion-rates-not.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-price-is-wrong-ai-cost-calculation-has-to-consider-task-completion-rates-not.jsonld"}}