The Inference Cost Crisis: Why Running AI Is Becoming More Expensive Than Training It

You type a prompt. The AI responds. You do not think about the cost. But someone is paying. The server is running. The electricity is flowing. The cooling is humming. Every query costs money. For years, the focus was on training costs. Training a model cost millions. Inference was cheap. Now the equation is flipping. Inference is becoming the dominant cost. And that changes everything. This is the inference cost crisis. The economics of AI are shifting. Training was the big cost. Now inference…