Can You Trust What AI Influencers Say? Use Common Sense, Don't Believe Everything

A well-known AI influencer recently claimed to be fully using AI to manage AI, spending the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of dollars in tokens every month. Hundreds of thousands a month — is this product development, or are you paying rent to the model companies?

I’m also a developer who uses AI to manage AI. I use over four billion tokens a day, all on the most premium models — Fable, Opus, Astra. So I’m qualified to do the math.

AI content creators are full of misleading claims. When someone says they use billions of tokens daily, they won’t tell you which model — billions of DeepSeek tokens and billions of Fable tokens can differ by several times to tens of times. They won’t tell you cache hits only cost ten percent, or that the most expensive model, Fable, only charges one-fortieth — and that the same content read over four thousand times counts as over a billion tokens. They also won’t mention that a single subscription equals thousands of dollars in usage: a two-hundred-dollar monthly plan is worth over fifty-five hundred at official API prices. Everyone uses subscriptions for real work, so converting at API prices makes the number hollow. Content creators deliberately inflate dollar figures for traffic — to get people to stop and look, earn ad revenue, and sell courses.

Here’s my actual AI bill. CC team plan — one account does over six billion tokens a week. Five accounts total over thirty billion a week, averaging the four-billion-plus per day I mentioned at the start — and that’s before counting my Codex account. Breaking one account down: ninety-eight percent is cache hits, and actual AI output is less than one percent. At official prices, that’s over three thousand a week, over fifteen thousand a month — but the subscription is just over a hundred. Frame it all as Fable and it’s over sixty thousand a week. The same number — I can frame it as three thousand or sixty thousand — nearly a twenty-fold difference. All five accounts at Fable’s price would be over a million a month. But without subscriptions, even switching entirely to DeepSeek’s latest model and calculating honestly, it’d still be one to two thousand a month.

What did those tokens produce? Daily video posts since March — a hundred and six episodes. Thirty projects and nearly seven thousand code commits in six months. Plus community work, enterprise consulting, and training programs.

Monthly cost? Five CC accounts plus one Codex — less than ten thousand yuan for development. Product-side image and video generation costs more, but that’s product cost covered by client prepayments. A YC-backed product’s head said they spent seven hundred fifty thousand dollars on development — enough to buy two-hundred-dollar monthly subscriptions for over three hundred people for a full year.

So when someone talks big, use some common sense — don’t believe everything. The people who talk up the technology all day long — ask what product they’ve built, what revenue they have, and suddenly there’s silence. Content creators like that, teachers selling courses, community leaders — keep your distance.

EP0107 · 2026-09-26 · 03:28. The picture uses a digital human, and the voice uses my cloned voice. This is an English translation of the approved Chinese script used to create the narration.

So, a well-known AI influencer recently said they’re now completely using AI to manage AI. And something about spending the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of dollars in tokens every month — I could only laugh. Hundreds of thousands of dollars a month — is this product development, or are you paying rent to the model companies? So how much does it really cost? I bet you’re curious too.

I’m also one of those developers they talk about — using AI to manage AI. I use over four billion tokens a day, all on the most premium models: Fable, Opus, and Astra. So this is a calculation I’m actually qualified to make.

AI content creators are full of misleading claims. They tell you they use billions of tokens a day, but they won’t tell you which model — right? Billions of DeepSeek and billions of Fable are not the same price — the difference can be several times to tens of times.

They also won’t tell you that cache hits only cost ten percent. And ten percent is generous — the most expensive model, Fable, only charges one-fortieth. The same piece of content gets read by the AI back and forth over four thousand times, and that alone counts as over a billion tokens.

They also won’t tell you that a single subscription plan is equivalent to thousands of dollars in usage. They only tell you how much their usage would cost if converted to money. Take the two-hundred-dollar-a-month plan — one month’s usage, calculated at official API prices, I’d estimate is over fifty-five hundred dollars. Does anyone actually skip the subscription and use the API for development? Everyone uses subscriptions for real work — so when you convert at API prices, that number is hollow.

It’s purely about grabbing attention — completely absurd — it keeps people from seeing real information. Content creators deliberately inflate eye-catching dollar amounts for traffic. So people stop and look, they earn ad revenue, and then they sell courses.

Let me share my AI bill. I use CC’s team plan. One account does over six billion tokens a week. I have five CC accounts, so that’s over thirty billion a week — averaging out to the four-billion-plus per day I mentioned at the start. And that’s not even counting my other Codex account. Plus, this is all development work — it doesn’t include the additional API usage generated by users making videos on the product side.

Let me break down one account for you. Ninety-eight percent is cache hits. The actual content the AI outputs is less than one percent. Calculated honestly at official prices, it’s over three thousand dollars a week — over fifteen thousand a month — but my subscription for this account is just over a hundred dollars a month. If I said it was all the most expensive model, Fable, it’d be over sixty thousand a week. The same number — I can frame it as three thousand or sixty thousand — that’s nearly a twenty-fold difference. And that’s just one account. All five accounts calculated at Fable’s price — over a million dollars a month. But if I didn’t use subscriptions, even switching entirely to DeepSeek’s latest model and calculating honestly, it’d still be one to two thousand dollars a month.

So what did I use all those tokens for? I’ve been posting daily on my video channel since March — a hundred and six episodes. Over the past six months, thirty projects writing code, nearly seven thousand commits. Plus community work, enterprise consulting, and training programs.

So how much do I spend per month? Five CC accounts plus one Codex account — less than ten thousand yuan. That ten thousand is the development cost, not product consumption. The token consumption for generating images and videos on the product side is indeed higher. But those are product costs — clients pay upfront deposits to use those services.

There’s also a YC-backed product whose head said they spent seven hundred fifty thousand dollars on development. What does that even mean? If you spent it all on two-hundred-dollar monthly subscriptions, it’d be enough for over three hundred people for a full year. So when someone talks big, let’s use some common sense and think about it — don’t believe everything.

Look at these people — every day they talk up the technology like it’s the greatest thing ever. You ask them what product they’ve built, what revenue they have — and suddenly there’s silence. Content creators like that, or teachers selling courses, or community leaders — seriously, keep your distance.

That’s all for today. See you tomorrow. Bye.