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Equation 11 · Part 2 · What Multimodal AI Actually Costs, Modality by Modality

subscript

τaudio\tau_{\mathrm{audio}}
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.

The passage around this formula

where t is duration in seconds, f the sampling rate, and τframe\tau_{\mathrm{frame}} , τaudio\tau_{\mathrm{audio}} the per-frame and per-second-of-audio token costs Google publishes. A minute of default-resolution video comes to roughly 18,000 tokens — about 2.7 cents at Gemini 3.5 Flash’s input rate, or about 1.35 cents at Gemini 3.7 Flash’s [ 6 , 4 ] . That is understanding a minute of footage: having the model watch it once and answer questions about it.

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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 →

Sources cited in the article section

These citations provide research context; check each source for the exact claim it supports.