IBM CEO: open-weight models cost 10–25% of frontier token price
IBM's CEO says open-weight models are now ~90% as effective at 10–25% of frontier token cost, while Epoch AI puts the open frontier 6–7 months behind closed models, with GLM-5.3 at 160 versus 171 for Opus 5.5 and GPT-6 Astra.
IBM's CEO on the 2026Q3 call: open-weight models now cost "anywhere from 25% to 10% of the token cost of the frontier models" and are "now 90% as effective". Epoch AI, 16 October: the open cyber frontier sits "roughly where the closed frontier stood 6–7 months ago". GLM-5.3 scores 160 against 171 for Opus 5.5 and GPT-6 Astra. A tenth of the price for last spring's model. The discount is the lag, and the lag is shrinking. Open weights run on anyone's card. What's missing is a price for the hour on whoever's card it is. Flop is building that missing piece.