What the steps mean
Cost mode:

Category: Infrastructure & Utility · Typical I/O: 2754→1258 tokens

Runs on model group: All models. Inputs may reach any model in the group, not only the ranked models below.

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Models

Frontier on this task: Claude Opus 5.5 at 8.93 / 10. Score needed at the Balanced step: 8.04.

point-estimate floor (CI low) · upper CI (less certain) · Bars sorted by blended cost; best-value model first. Greyed rows are MEDIUM+ models whose point estimate does not clear the bar.

ModelQuality scoreCI lowCost / 1k runsvs best value
Xiaomi MiMo V2.6 Flash8.52 / 108.33$0.23best value
Claude Haiku 5.58.55 / 108.36$0.361.6x more expensive
GPT-6 Luna8.79 / 108.64$0.431.9x more expensive
MiniMax M38.27 / 108.08$1.155.1x more expensive
Tencent Hy38.17 / 108.04$2.4511x more expensive
Thinking Machines Inkling Small8.68 / 108.32$2.7012x more expensive
NVIDIA Nemotron-3 Ultra 550B8.34 / 108.11$3.2014x more expensive
GLM-5.3 Flash8.80 / 108.64$4.4420x more expensive
GPT-6 Sol8.86 / 108.69$5.0622x more expensive
Qwen 3.7 Plus8.37 / 108.29$5.7925x more expensive
Claude Sonnet 5.58.80 / 108.65$7.1031x more expensive
Thinking Machines Inkling8.77 / 108.57$9.1740x more expensive
Meta Muse Spark 1.38.17 / 107.89$12.8857x more expensive
Claude Opus 5.58.93 / 108.79$14.0862x more expensive
Moonshot Kimi K38.65 / 108.52$23.57104x more expensive
Tencent Hy4 Preview8.56 / 108.32$26.18115x more expensive
Grok 4.78.80 / 108.64$26.89118x more expensive
Qwen 3.8 Max8.42 / 108.29$27.98123x more expensive
GLM-5.38.87 / 108.73$44.91198x more expensive
Qwen 3.8 Flash7.83 / 107.59$2.4411x more expensive
Gemini 3.8 Flash8.02 / 107.83$3.2914x more expensive
NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning7.17 / 106.83$0.582.5x more expensive
NVIDIA Nemotron-3 Nano 30B-A3B7.03 / 106.71$0.421.9x more expensive
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash7.99 / 107.79$1.345.9x more expensive
Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite7.25 / 107.04$0.632.8x more expensive

Cost breakdown

ModelQualityConfidenceCost / 1k runsOverpayMode
Xiaomi MiMo V2.6 Flash ★ Xiaomi MiMo8.52 / 10 CI [8.33, 8.71]RANKED$0.23best valuebatch
Claude Haiku 5.5 Anthropic8.55 / 10 CI [8.36, 8.74]RANKED$0.361.6xbatch
GPT-6 Luna OpenAI8.79 / 10 CI [8.64, 8.94]RANKED$0.431.9xbatch
MiniMax M3 OpenRouter8.27 / 10 CI [8.08, 8.47]RANKED$1.155.1xbatch
Tencent Hy3 OpenRouter8.17 / 10 CI [8.04, 8.30]RANKED$2.4511xbatch
Thinking Machines Inkling Small OpenRouter8.68 / 10 CI [8.32, 9.05]MEDIUM$2.7012xbatch
NVIDIA Nemotron-3 Ultra 550B OpenRouter8.34 / 10 CI [8.11, 8.57]HIGH$3.2014xbatch
GLM-5.3 Flash Z.AI8.80 / 10 CI [8.64, 8.96]RANKED$4.4420xbatch
GPT-6 Sol OpenAI8.86 / 10 CI [8.69, 9.04]RANKED$5.0622xbatch
Qwen 3.7 Plus Alibaba Cloud (DashScope)8.37 / 10 CI [8.29, 8.46]RANKED$5.7925xbatch
Claude Sonnet 5.5 Anthropic8.80 / 10 CI [8.65, 8.94]RANKED$7.1031xbatch
Thinking Machines Inkling OpenRouter8.77 / 10 CI [8.57, 8.98]HIGH$9.1740xbatch
Meta Muse Spark 1.3 OpenRouter8.17 / 10 CI [7.89, 8.44]HIGH$12.8857xbatch
Claude Opus 5.5 best Anthropic8.93 / 10 CI [8.79, 9.07]RANKED$14.0862xbatch
Moonshot Kimi K3 Moonshot AI8.65 / 10 CI [8.52, 8.79]RANKED$23.57104xbatch
Tencent Hy4 Preview OpenRouter8.56 / 10 CI [8.32, 8.80]HIGH$26.18115xbatch
Grok 4.7 xAI8.80 / 10 CI [8.64, 8.96]RANKED$26.89118xbatch
Qwen 3.8 Max Alibaba Cloud (DashScope)8.42 / 10 CI [8.29, 8.56]RANKED$27.98123xbatch
GLM-5.3 Z.AI8.87 / 10 CI [8.73, 9.01]RANKED$44.91198xbatch

Overpay shows how much more you pay than the best-value model that meets the quality step (marked ★) — the best-value good-enough option. "16x" means you overpay 16× — 16× that reference for no quality benefit the step asks for. Typical call shape for this task: 2754 input tokens → 1258 output tokens, EMA-tracked from production traffic. Cost is the observed, all-in $ per 1,000 task runs: each model's own measured usage on this task — output verbosity, thinking/reasoning tokens, cache reads and writes, and the spend on its billed failures — priced at current list rates and adjusted by the billing overhead we actually reconcile against provider invoices. Models that answer tersely cost what they actually cost; models that think at length pay for it. Not comparable to providers' advertised $/1M list rates — this is what running the task costs, not a per-token price.

Evaluation rubric

Judge source-to-concept relevance, visual specificity, compositional coherence, practical usefulness to an image model, consistency with supplied context, and avoidance of unsupported or contradictory details.

Output schema

Every answer on this task is checked against this JSON Schema, whichever model wrote it. An answer that doesn't fit counts as a model failure, and the call is retried on another model.

{
  "description": "Output model for generating an image prompt for the analysis report.",
  "properties": {
    "image_prompt": {
      "description": "A detailed, vivid description of the image to be generated.",
      "title": "Image Prompt",
      "type": "string"
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "image_prompt"
  ],
  "title": "ImagePromptGenerationOutput",
  "type": "object"
}

Prompt templates

The published template for this task.

default · LLMB_CONTENT_TO_IMAGE_PROMPT_GENERATION_SYSTEM + LLMB_CONTENT_TO_IMAGE_PROMPT_GENERATION_USER (592 calls in window)

System prompt

You write image briefs. Given source material, produce one self-contained brief that a text-to-image model will render. The brief is the deliverable: the image is generated downstream from your words alone, so whatever you leave unsaid is left to the image model. Do not name a particular image model unless the caller asks.

Derive a visual concept from the source’s central idea rather than illustrating every detail. Cover subject, setting, composition, visual hierarchy, style, palette, lighting, mood, aspect or use context, and explicit exclusions.

SURFACE BRIEF — the image's destination, and the art direction it requires. These rules are authoritative wherever they are more specific than the general guidance above, including where they permit something it discourages:
{image_brief_profile}

Except where the surface brief says otherwise, avoid unsupported logos, real-person likenesses, legible text, charts, and sensitive imagery. Treat empty optional values as absent and return only the requested result. Your response must conform exactly to this output schema: {schema_json_string}.

User prompt

Inputs — subject_name: {subject_name}; subject_code: {subject_code}; report_content: {report_content}; reference_context: {reference_context}; topic_name: {topic_name}; topic_description: {topic_description}; context: {context}. Use only these inputs to complete the task defined by the system prompt.