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Scenario: LLM Inference Cost vs Latency Tradeoffs
"You are building an AI-powered product and must choose between Option A (higher cost, lower latency) and Option B (lower cost, higher latency). How would you decide?"
The Decision Framework
OPTION A: Premium Model (e.g., GPT-4, Claude Opus, Gemini Pro)
Cost: $15-75 / 1M tokens | Latency: 500ms-3s TTFT | Quality: Highest
OPTION B: Efficient Model (e.g., GPT-4o-mini, Claude Haiku, Gemini Flash)
Cost: $0.25-3 / 1M tokens | Latency: 100ms-500ms TTFT | Quality: Good
THE REAL ANSWER: Use both. Route dynamically.
Cost: $15-75 / 1M tokens | Latency: 500ms-3s TTFT | Quality: Highest
OPTION B: Efficient Model (e.g., GPT-4o-mini, Claude Haiku, Gemini Flash)
Cost: $0.25-3 / 1M tokens | Latency: 100ms-500ms TTFT | Quality: Good
THE REAL ANSWER: Use both. Route dynamically.