Costly Blog
Weekly articles on AI costs, efficiency, and our mission.
93% of Developers Use AI. Productivity Moved 10%. What Happened?
A landmark study found AI tools made experienced developers 19% slower - while they believed they were 20% faster. The 39-point perception gap reveals something important about how we adopt new tools and measure their value.
The $2.5 Trillion Trough: Why the Biggest AI Spending Year Ever Might Also Be the Most Wasteful
Gartner says the world will spend $2.5 trillion on AI in 2026. MIT says 95% of enterprise AI projects fail to deliver ROI. Both of these things are true at the same time, and that should terrify every CTO with an AI budget.
Cheaper Tokens, Bigger Bills: The AI Cost Paradox Nobody Saw Coming
AI inference costs dropped 1,000x in three years. So why are 72% of enterprises saying their AI spending is unmanageable? The answer reveals a fundamental shift in how we need to think about AI costs.
The Real Cost of AI Is Not on Your Invoice
AI data centers now consume more electricity than some countries and drink billions of gallons of water yearly. The bill you're not seeing might be the one that matters most.
Your MCP Setup Is Burning 362,000 Tokens Per Session — Here's What That's Actually Costing You
MCP tool bloat is the fastest-growing hidden cost in AI development. We break down the real numbers — dollars, watts, and water — behind the tokens you're wasting before your agent writes a single line of code.