Equation 7 · Part 2 · The Real Cost of Running Claude in Production, Beyond the Per-Token Price
subscript
subscript
What this part means
The lower label selects a particular version, component, or indexed member of the quantity. For example, x₀ and xₜ can be values at different positions.
Its job in the formula
A subscript distinguishes a version, component, step, or member of a quantity. It does not automatically mean multiplication.
Full expression→subscript→Article meaning
The passage around this formula
Collect the pieces above into one expression and the gap between a rate card and an invoice becomes explicit. For a single request, let n be new input tokens, w cache-write tokens, r cache-read tokens, y visible output tokens, z billed-but-invisible thinking tokens, and the fixed tool and system-prompt tokens added regardless of content. Let , , , and be the published rates, and let a (0, 1] be the fraction of attempts an application accepts without needing to reissue the request, because it was neither truncated at the maximum-tokens cap nor lost to a timeout, an overload error, or a rate limit. Cost per accepted…
Learn the underlying idea
A subscript is a label attached below a symbol. It often selects a time step, component, category, or member of a sequence.
Open the illustrated subscripts: which member of a family? guide →
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