Cost
How does incremental computation change AI cost?
Incremental compute cost means you pay model APIs mainly for new or changed rows. Cached columns are not sent again.
Updated · Part of What is incremental computation?
How it works
- The first insert calls the model.
- An unchanged row is not called again.
- An edit calls the model for the descendants of that row.
What it is not
It does not make the first embedding call free, and it does not make RAG free.
incremental compute cost: this, and the thing it is confused with
| This | Not this | |
|---|---|---|
| First row | Billed by the model provider | Free because the engine is free |
| Unchanged row | No new model call | Reprocessed nightly |
| Edit | Descendants only | The whole corpus |
Where Pixeltable fits
Pixeltable stores computed columns, so reading a result does not repeat the provider call. A new row with the same input is a new call.
Questions
How does incremental compute cost work?
The first insert calls the model. An unchanged row is not called again. An edit calls the model for the descendants of that row.
What is incremental compute cost often confused with?
It does not make the first embedding call free, and it does not make RAG free.
Next step
Install the Pixeltable skill, or sign up for Cloud and run the same file on a hosted database.