Epoch AI (28 Sep): the cost of reaching a fixed AI benchmark score falls 13x a year; 725x on GPQA in 18 months
2 items, from 28 Sep 2026 to 29 Sep 2026, oldest first.
AI and technology · New data ·
Epoch AI (28 Sep): the cost of reaching a fixed AI benchmark score falls 13x a year; 725x on GPQA in 18 months
Epoch AI finds the cheapest price of hitting a given score on five benchmarks has fallen 13x a year; o3's 75% on GPQA Diamond cost $0.30 a question in Jan 2025, matched 18 months later for $0.0004. That is 6x faster than compute and 18x faster than lithium batteries.
Why it matters. If the price of a given level of AI skill keeps falling this fast, the cost argument for keeping people on routine thinking tasks weakens quickly.
Next. Epoch's and METR's next measurements of frontier models.
OpenAI's GPT-6.1 Sol (29 Sep): near GPT-6 Astra on coding and computer use at $2/$10 per M tokens, 1/5 Astra's price
At DevDay on 29 Sep OpenAI released GPT-6.1 Sol, which it says nearly matches its flagship GPT-6 Astra ($10/$50 per million tokens) on agentic coding, computer use and professional work, at $2 input and $10 output. Factual errors fall from 11.4% to 7.7% against GPT-6 Sol, within 1.9 points of Astra.
Why it matters. Work that needed OpenAI's most expensive model three weeks ago can now be done, the company says, for a fifth of the price, which widens the range of jobs where an AI agent is cheaper than a person.
Next. Independent benchmark results over the coming week will show whether it really matches the flagship.