Rohan Paul

OpenAI's median researcher used $601 of coding-agent inference a day at API prices, up from under $1, in January 2026. Eoch AI's new report. > OpenAI researchers' coding-agent usage, valued at API list prices, is doubling roughly every month > By mid-August 2026, the median researcher used $601 a day and about $2M a year, roughly matching or exceeding what employing a researcher costs. > This pace probably can't last, since one more year would reach about $185M per median researcher, and list-price figures reveal nothing about what OpenAI actually spends.