Compute Price Index
CPIA weighted reference price for AI compute, derived from twelve models across four providers.
1 SCU — STANDARD COMPUTE UNIT
$0.007245
Cost of a reference workload — 1,000 input tokens + 500 output tokens — averaged across the basket. Updated 19h ago.
FRONTIER (30%)
$0.004199
4 models · capped mean contribution
STANDARD (40%)
$0.002505
4 models · capped mean contribution
LIGHTWEIGHT (30%)
$0.00054
4 models · capped mean contribution
Provider share by model count
The basket.
One model per provider per tier. Twelve models total. Current basket: v1.0 (launched April 7, 2026). Index history runs back to v0 inception on June 17, 2025.
Frontier Tier
30% weightStandard Tier
40% weight| Model | Provider | Released | Input $/1M | Output $/1M |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Anthropic | 2026-02 | $3 ($3.15) | $15 ($15.75) |
| GPT-4.1 | OpenAI | 2025-04 | $2 ($2.1) | $8 ($8.4) |
| Gemini 3 Pro | 2025-11 | $2 ($2.1) | $12 ($12.6) | |
| Grok 3 Mini | xAI | 2025-02 | $0.3 ($0.31) | $0.5 ($0.53) |
Lightweight Tier
30% weight| Model | Provider | Released | Input $/1M | Output $/1M |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | Anthropic | 2025-10 | $1 ($1.05) | $5 ($5.25) |
| GPT-5 Mini | OpenAI | 2026-01 | $0.25 ($0.26) | $2 ($2.1) |
| Grok 4.1 Fast | xAI | 2026-01 | $0.2 ($0.21) | $0.5 ($0.53) |
| Gemini 3 Flash | 2025-12 | $0.5 ($0.53) | $3 ($3.15) |
SCU History
Hourly SCU history. Each step is a new on-chain version; values are constant between updates.
Current
$0.00724
Period Change
+11.92%
High / Low
$0.00822 / $0.00647
Reconstitutions
10
Display currencies. The canonical SCU is denominated in USD and stored on-chain as USDC microcents. Non-USD values shown above are display-only conversions sourced from a public FX feed. They are not part of the on-chain CPI value and may differ slightly from any specific FX provider.
Compute Power Index
Purchasing power per dollar — higher is better. Anchored to base 100 at the v0 inception snapshot (June 17, 2025).
A reading of 120 means compute is 20% cheaper than baseline. The Compute Power Index is the inverse of the SCU, normalized — when costs go down, the line goes up.
Current Index
89.4
Period Change
-10.6
High / Low
100.0 / 78.7
Baseline
100.0
Reconstitution Log
Every basket version update is recorded on-chain with a timestamp, the affected models, and the resulting SCU. The log spans v0 (June 2025 — April 2026) and v1.0 (the public launch basket).
Added gpt-5.5; Removed gpt-5.4
SCU: $0.006494 → $0.007244(+11.5%)
Added claude-opus-4.7; Removed claude-opus-4.6
SCU: $0.006494 → $0.006494(+0.0%)
Added claude-sonnet-4.6, grok-4, claude-opus-4.6; Removed claude-3.5-sonnet, claude-3-opus, grok-3
SCU: $0.00822 → $0.006494(-21.0%)
Added gemini-3.1-pro; Removed gemini-2.5-pro
SCU: $0.008023 → $0.00822(+2.5%)
Added gpt-5.4; Removed gpt-4o
SCU: $0.007742 → $0.008023(+3.6%)
Added gpt-5-mini, grok-4.1-fast; Removed grok-3-fast, gpt-4o-mini
SCU: $0.007629 → $0.007742(+1.5%)
Added gemini-3-flash; Removed gemini-2.0-flash-lite
SCU: $0.007429 → $0.007629(+2.7%)
Added gemini-3-pro; Removed gemini-2.5-flash
SCU: $0.006499 → $0.007429(+14.3%)
Added claude-haiku-4.5; Removed claude-3.5-haiku
SCU: $0.006473 → $0.006499(+0.4%)
Inception with 12 models
Methodology
The SCU is calculated from public pricing data using a fixed, deterministic formula. Anyone can reproduce it.
Step 1 — Per-model cost
For each model in the basket, compute the cost of the reference workload using the provider's published per-token pricing.
cost_m = (input_price_m × 1000) + (output_price_m × 500)Step 2 — Per-tier capped mean
For each tier t ∈ {frontier, standard, lightweight}, compute the arithmetic mean of all four model costs in that tier. Any single model whose cost exceeds 2× the tier mean is capped at 2× — preventing one expensive model from dominating the tier average.
tier_avg_t = mean(min(cost_m, 2 × tier_mean_t))Step 3 — Weighted SCU
Apply tier weights and sum: Frontier 30%, Standard 40%, Lightweight 30%. The weights reflect real-world usage distribution across capability tiers.
SCU = (frontier_avg × 0.30) + (standard_avg × 0.40) + (lightweight_avg × 0.30)On-Chain Verification
The basket and SCU live in the OracleRegistry contract on Base. Each version is a single transaction; the on-chain payload is canonical.
API Reference
Public read endpoints. No authentication required. Full reference in the documentation.