# You are overpaying for intelligence. Grok 4.5 just proved it > Source: > Published: 2026-07-09 16:12:07+00:00 # You are overpaying for intelligence. Grok 4.5 just proved it ### SpaceXAI’s new model runs frontier tasks at a tenth of the cost per task. Here is the router that tells you exactly which model to use for every job, and pays for itself in a week Yesterday, the model wars turned into a pricing war. SpaceXAI shipped **Grok 4.5**, its first model trained alongside Cursor, at **$2 per million input tokens and $6 per million output**. Musk’s own framing: “It is an Opus-class model, but faster, more token-efficient and lower cost.” The independent numbers back the pitch where it counts. Grok 4.5 ranks **#4 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index**, behind only Fable 5, GPT-5.5, and Opus 4.8. And it hits those scores at a fraction of the spend: **$0.31 per task** on the index, and **$0.49 per task** on GDPval knowledge work, roughly 90% cheaper than the models ranked above it. The sharpest number in the whole launch: running the same coding-agent benchmark task costs **$2.49 in Grok Build, $5.07 in Codex, and $11.80 with Fable 5 in Claude Code**. Same job. Five times the bill. Here is the free insight, and it is the one that changes your bill this month: **stop pricing models per token. Price them per completed task.** Per-token prices lie. Sonnet 5 costs a fifth of Opus 4.8 per token, and at high effort it costs *more* per finished task, because it talks more. Grok 4.5 wins on economics because it uses **4.2x fewer output tokens than Opus** on the same engineering tasks. Verbosity is a price. Almost everyone ignores it. Which means the question is longer “which model is best.” It is “which model is best *for this task at this price*,” and that question has a table for an answer. I built it. Behind the paywall, **The AI Model Router**: ▫️ every task type mapped to the model that wins it on cost per completed task, across Grok 4.5, Fable 5, Opus 4.8, Sonnet 5, GPT-5.5, Gemini, Haiku, and the open modelsThe routing table,▫️ the verified cost figures for each lane, including the Sonnet trap that fools per-token shoppersThe per-task math,▫️ the single setting that swings cost 6x, triple the gap between any two model pricesThe effort dial,▫️ when to route up to Fable 5, and the two patterns that keep 90%+ of its power at half the costThe escalation ladder,▫️ what to run this week while Grok 4.5 costs zero in Grok Build and Cursor doubles your usageThe free-window plays,▫️ the quality dispute, the Cursor code-custody problem, and the regulatory overhang, priced honestlyThe three warnings,▫️ three tests that tell you whether Grok 4.5 clears your bar before you commit anythingThe 48-hour setup,▫️ the four events that should make you rerun this tableThe re-route triggers, One number for the no-brainer math: the average team pays **$150 to $250 per developer per month** for AI, and Uber’s engineers burned their entire 2026 AI budget in four months at $500 to $2,000 a head. Routing typically cuts that spend 40 to 70%. This resource costs less than one week of sending your work to the wrong model. # 🧭 The AI Model Router The routing table, the per-task cost math, the effort dial, the escalation ladder, the free-window plays, and the re-route triggers, in one system you can apply today. #### Get **The AI Model Router** below 👇 ## Keep reading with a 7-day free trial Subscribe to The AI Corner to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.