@mcuban $0.50 per Mtok is a lot of money Mark. Are you considered cache hit on prefill? Or just output tokens?
SemiAnalysis Twitter · SemiAnalysis (@SemiAnalysis_) · 2026-05-16
SemiAnalysis challenges Mark Cuban's AI token pricing figure of $0.50 per million tokens, asking whether that price reflects cache hits on prefill tokens or only output tokens — a distinction that significantly affects true cost.
Appears in
Extraction
Topics: llm-pricinginference-costsprompt-cachingtoken-economics
Claims
- $0.50 per million tokens is, by SemiAnalysis's assessment, a significant amount of money.
- The cost characterization of LLM usage depends critically on whether cached prefill tokens are counted separately from output tokens.
- Mark Cuban made a claim about AI token pricing that SemiAnalysis believes requires clarification on pricing methodology.
Key quotes
@mcuban $0.50 per Mtok is a lot of money Mark. Are you considered cache hit on prefill? Or just output tokens?