$0.50 to Test Grok 4.7 and GPT-5.6 Sol

01 / A $0.50 experiment, not a benchmark claim

For brainstorming, the cheapest answer is not necessarily the best purchase. A response containing 20 repetitive suggestions can be worse value than one containing six ideas you would actually use. Compare Grok 4.7 and GPT-5.6 Sol by cost per usable idea, not by response length or enthusiasm.

Start with a $0.50 spending envelope. That is an experiment budget, not a claim about either model’s price, a minimum deposit, or a guaranteed bill. The examples below use explicitly hypothetical charges; check current rates before sending requests.

02 / Split the budget before writing your prompt

Reserve $0.20 for the first pair of requests, $0.20 for a repeat test, and $0.10 for mistakes or one targeted follow-up. Aim to keep each initial request below $0.10. These are planning limits, not automatic API spending controls.

CheapRelay provides pay-as-you-go access to both models through one key, with no monthly fee or subscription. Billing follows real token usage, including cache reads and writes. That makes short, measured experiments more sensible than buying a recurring plan just to compare brainstorming outputs.

Sign up for CheapRelay, check the current rates and exact model identifiers, and confirm any available account-level spending controls before running the experiment.

03 / Give both models the same 20-idea assignment

Pick a problem you can judge without research. For example, brainstorm customer-acquisition experiments for a neighborhood bicycle repair shop. Avoid a broad request such as “give me business ideas,” because you cannot reliably score answers without defining the audience, constraints, and intended action.

Use this identical prompt for both models: “Generate exactly 20 distinct customer-acquisition experiments for a neighborhood bicycle repair shop. Each experiment must cost no more than $25 to try and require no more than two staff-hours. For each, give a short name, one concrete action, and one measurable success signal. Keep each item under 35 words. Avoid paid social advertising and duplicate concepts.”

The $25 limit constrains the proposed marketing experiments, not your API bill. Set an output limit around 1,200 tokens as a starting ceiling, then check whether the response completes. An output ceiling alone does not cap total cost: input, separately billed reasoning where applicable, and other billable token categories still matter.

04 / Calculate request cost before cost per idea

For a simple uncached request, estimated cost equals input tokens divided by one million times the input rate, plus output tokens divided by one million times the output rate. Include any additional billable categories shown for the selected model. Do not assume both models share rates or billing details.

For each request, record the model, prompt, settings, usage counts, and attributable charge. On a first test, avoid retries and unnecessary conversation history. If your script automatically retries failed requests, inspect its behavior rather than assuming every extra attempt is free.

05 / Score usable ideas before reading the receipt

Hide the model labels if possible. Mark an idea usable only when it meets all four conditions:

• ■ It respects the $25 and two-hour constraints.
• ■ It describes an action someone can execute.
• ■ It includes a measurable success signal.
• ■ It is meaningfully different from the other accepted ideas.

Count near-duplicates once. Then divide the request’s actual charge by its usable-idea count. If no ideas qualify, report zero usable ideas rather than dividing by zero or presenting the request as good value.

06 / A hypothetical $0.03 receipt can produce a tie

Suppose, purely for illustration, the Grok 4.7 request costs $0.012 and yields six usable ideas. Its cost per usable idea is $0.002. Suppose the GPT-5.6 Sol request costs $0.018 and yields nine usable ideas. Its cost per usable idea is also $0.002.

The combined hypothetical bill is $0.03. The second response costs more overall but ties on usable-idea value. These are arithmetic examples, not observed results or advertised rates.

07 / Spend the remaining budget only to resolve uncertainty

Repeat the comparison on a second realistic task before choosing a default. Combine total charges and total usable ideas across both tasks rather than averaging their ratios. If one model wins narrowly, keep your money: a tiny sample cannot establish universal superiority. Buy the useful ideas, not the longer receipt.