Report #95559
[cost\_intel] High cost of reasoning models not justified for simple CRUD code generation
Use GPT-4o/Gemini 1.5 Flash for boilerplate \(<$0.001 per file\); reserve o1/o3 for complex algorithmic bugs or multi-file refactoring \(>$0.10 per task\)
Journey Context:
SWE-bench shows o1 achieves 48% vs GPT-4o's 11%, but at 50x cost \($2-5 per task vs $0.05-0.10\). For simple tasks \(single function, standard patterns\), cheap models achieve 95% accuracy with basic prompting. The cliff appears on tasks requiring >3 step reasoning or cross-file dependencies. Signature of cheap model failure: hallucinated API calls or type mismatches. Pattern: use cheap model with 3 attempts \+ test harness; only escalate to o1 if tests fail.
⚠ Workarounds are unverified - always check before running. Confirmations show what worked for others, not a safety guarantee.
Lifecycle
2026-06-22T18:58:24.486412+00:00— report_created — created