The cost-saving AI measure Coinbase's CEO is taking to keep costs 'roughly flat' while growing token usage

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong wrote that "the limiting factor will be energy and compute, not better models."

David Dee Delgado/Getty Images for The New York Times

Not every AI prompt needs Opus 4.8.As the fervor of tokenmaxxing dies down, some AI users are wondering how to get more bang for their buck and keep their monthly costs in check. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong shared the crypto company's strategy: not skimping on the cheaper models."We're working hard on routing prompts to cheaper models where appropriate, and in some cases have been able to keep costs roughly flat, while token usage continues to grow exponentially," Armstrong wrote on X on Sunday.While the latest models like Opus 4.8 or GPT-5.5 promise bleeding-edge benefits, they can also devour more tokens. (That's before you turn on Fast mode.) When Anthropic launchedi Opus 4.7, many users complained that they were quickly hitting rate limits.Armstrong wrote that he anticipated "80% of workloads will be running on 99% cheaper models within 12-18 months."The only times when users will use the latest models, Armstrong predicted, are when they need to be "IQ maxing." This includes scientific breakthroughs or agent orchestration."This leads me to think the limiting factor will be energy and compute, not better models," Armstrong wrote.