Give People the Best Models

Don’t cheap out on model access. Give people the most capable models so they can collaborate at the highest level. The difference between a frontier model and a budget one isn’t incremental. It’s the difference between a useful collaborator and a frustrating one.

Once people have access, train them to match models to tasks. “Best model” means best model for the job, not most expensive model for everything.

Task-model matching

Reasoning model for strategy, analysis, writing, complex decisions. This is where capability matters most. Using a cheap model for strategic work gives you cheap thinking.

Code model for file editing, builds, pull requests. Specialized models handle tool use and structured output more reliably than general reasoning models.

Fast model for formatting, lookups, reminders, notifications. Anything you could explain in one sentence. These run 10-100x cheaper and respond almost instantly.

The skill isn’t defaulting to the cheapest option. It’s knowing which tasks deserve premium thinking and which ones don’t. A daily backup script doesn’t need your best model. A quarterly strategy review does.

The cost equation

Right-sizing across three model tiers typically cuts costs by 60-70% compared to running everything on the most capable model. Quality stays the same or improves, because each task gets a model optimized for its specific type of work.

The goal: everyone has access to the best, and everyone knows when to use what.