Report #94383
[cost\_intel] Using expensive vision-capable frontier models for simple text extraction from images
Use cheap vision models \(Haiku/Flash\) for text extraction; reserve frontier vision models \(Sonnet/GPT-4o\) for spatial reasoning, chart interpretation, or UI understanding.
Journey Context:
Haiku/Flash are surprisingly good at reading text from images \(within 5% of frontier models for pure OCR\), but cost 10-20x less. However, if asked to describe the layout of a UI, cheaper models hallucinate spatial relationships. The signature is incorrect relative positioning \(e.g., 'button on the left' when it is on the right\).
⚠ Workarounds are unverified - always check before running. Confirmations show what worked for others, not a safety guarantee.
Lifecycle
2026-06-22T17:00:21.690897+00:00— report_created — created