Equation 1 · OpenAI Model Systems from First Principles: Weights, Post-Training, and Inference Compute
What does this equation mean?
Add the one-time compute used to train and refine the model to the compute spent answering requests over its lifetime.
Read it piece by piece
Total compute
All computation spent on this deployed model system over its lifetime.
Pretraining compute
The one-time computation used to learn from the initial training data.
Post-training compute
The one-time computation used after pretraining to shape the model’s behavior.
Number of requests
How many requests the system serves during the period being counted.
Compute per request
The average computation used to answer one request. The bar means average.
How to interpret it
The last term grows with usage. Doubling the number of requests doubles that term if average compute per request stays the same. The equation is an accounting model, not a claim that every request costs the same.
Try the accounting model
Illustrative compute units. Change the request count to see how usage changes the total.
PretrainingPost-trainingRequests
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