List price per million tokens hides retries, repo reads, and tool calls. Measure dollars per finished task. In August 2026 the spread is ugly in a useful way: frontier sits near $10 on a heavy job, mid-tier near $4, strong open-weight from about $0.26 to $0.80.
What we tell operators
If your team fires hundreds of frontier jobs a week, you do not have an AI program. You have an unbudgeted vendor. Write down when a human is allowed to escalate the model. Put a cap on the key. Review the bill like you review AWS.
We apply the same discipline to stores and automation: cheap where it is mechanical, expensive where it touches money or reputation. Pair this with China vs US model routing and the editor stack. If you want the policy written for your team, book an assessment.