A short note on what the Compute Price Index is, what it isn’t, and how to use it. The CPI is a public benchmark for AI compute costs — published as data infrastructure, not as financial advice or a financial product.
What it is
The Compute Price Index (“CPI”) tracks the cost of AI inference across four providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, xAI) and twelve models. The index publishes a single weighted reference price — the Standard Compute Unit (“SCU”) — calculated from a deterministic, public formula. Methodology and basket composition are documented at docs.compute.finance.
The current basket is v1.0, launched April 7, 2026. The index has tracked AI compute pricing since June 17, 2025 under basket v0, an internal version used to validate the methodology before public launch. All historical snapshots remain queryable through the public API.
What it isn’t
The CPI is not financial, investment, legal, tax, or accounting advice. It is not an offer to buy, sell, or hold any asset, security, token, or financial instrument. Compute Finance does not currently issue or distribute any token. The index is informational data infrastructure.
The CPI is not a regulated financial benchmark. It is not registered under the EU Benchmarks Regulation, the UK Benchmarks Regulation, IOSCO Principles for Financial Benchmarks, or any equivalent framework, and should not be used as a settlement reference for financial contracts.
How the data works
The CPI is derived from publicly available pricing data published by AI providers. We poll provider pricing pages on an hourly basis and apply the documented formula to produce each snapshot. The result is published to the public API and on-chain to the OracleRegistry contract on Base Sepolia.
Published pricing reflects standard public rates only. Negotiated enterprise contracts, volume discounts, regional pricing variations, free credits, and promotional pricing are not captured. Your actual costs will depend on your usage patterns, prompt complexity, caching, and any commercial terms specific to your relationship with the provider.
The basket may change over time. Quarterly reviews, model additions or removals, and emergency reconstitutions are recorded in the public reconstitution log. Compute Finance makes no warranty as to the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the published data.
Independence
Compute Finance is an independent project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or partnered with OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, xAI, or any other AI provider. Inclusion of a model in the basket reflects publicly available pricing — it is not a recommendation. Removal is not a criticism.
Provider names and model names — including GPT, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and xAI — are trademarks of their respective owners.
Using the data
The public API at api.compute.finance is available without authentication during the v1.0 early access period. There is no service-level commitment for uptime, latency, or freshness — production systems should implement caching and graceful degradation.
The OracleRegistry contract is currently deployed on Base Sepolia testnet. Mainnet deployment is not yet available, and the testnet contract should not be used as a production data source. Smart contracts that consume the on-chain CPI should implement their own staleness checks and fallback logic.
The Compute Finance ID, points system, and referral program are non-monetary engagement features. Points have no cash value, are not transferable, and are not securities or claims on any current or future product.
Liability and law
To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Compute Finance and its operators are not liable for any losses arising from use of, or reliance on, the CPI, the API, the on-chain contract, or any related service — including losses from data errors, methodology changes, basket reconstitutions, service interruptions, or downstream automated systems consuming the data.
Use of the CPI is subject to applicable law in the user’s jurisdiction. If any provision of this notice is held unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in effect. Compute Finance may update this notice at any time; material changes are reflected in the date above.