AI inference costs dropped up to 10x on Nvidia’s Blackwell — but hardware is only half the equation
Sean Michael Kerner February 12, 2026 Credit: Image generated by VentureBeat with FLUX-2-ProLowering the cost of inference is typically a combination of hardware and software. A new analysis released Thursday by Nvidia details how four leading inference providers are reporting 4x to 10x reductions in cost per token.The dramatic cost reductions were achieved using Nvidia’s Blackwell platform with open-source models. Production deployment data from Baseten, DeepInfra, Fireworks AI and Together AI shows significant cost improvements across healthcare, gaming, agentic chat, and customer service as enterprises scale AI from pilot projects to millions of users.The 4x to 10x cost reductions reported by inference providers required combining Blackwell hardware with two other elements: optimized…
