# From prose to video: the economics of AI output formats

> A rigorous cost analysis of AI-generated prose, diagrams, interactive HTML and explainer video across five current model families, including verification and retry costs.

Source: https://tokenomy.ai/blog/economics-of-ai-output-formats
Last updated: 2026-10-02
Publisher: Tokenomy — FinOps for AI
License: free to quote with attribution and a link to the source URL.

A response to Andrej Karpathy's output-format thesis: when richer AI artifacts are worth their higher generation, rendering and verification costs.

## Overview

A response to Andrej Karpathy's output-format thesis: when richer AI artifacts are worth their higher generation, rendering and verification costs.

- Current API prices for GPT-6 Sol, Claude Sonnet 5.5, Gemini 3.8 Flash, Grok 4.7 and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
- Worked costs for controlled prose, diagrams, interactive HTML and a three-minute explainer video
- Why verification, not inference, dominates many technical artifacts
- Where ASD-STE100-style prompting helps and why it does not establish compliance
- A practical routing and medium-selection framework for production teams

## About Tokenomy

Tokenomy is the economic runtime for AI — the system of record for AI model pricing, plus free tools, independent research and runtime rails that meter, enforce and attribute every model call.

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