Platform Cost Tracking - High IQ Docs

Overview

This page tracks the cost of every external service that powers the High IQ platform. The biggest cost center is the Strain Research Pipeline (Trigger.dev v2) — a 7-stage AI pipeline that researches, enriches, and generates images for cannabis strains. The Strain Music Pipeline adds AI-generated songs per strain. Other platform costs (auth, hosting, database) are documented at the bottom.

Self-serve model (March 2026): The pipeline no longer runs in batch. When a user visits a strain page with no research, they tap a button to trigger on-demand research via direct mode. Results appear in ~5-10 minutes. This means all strain research runs at direct-mode pricing.

Data snapshot (July 3, 2026): 2,525 strains researched, 2,750 in the unprocessed queue, and ~25,000 unmatched competitor strains tracked (Leafly/AllBud sitemaps). Pipeline throughput has been ≈0 strains/week recently — a restart decision is pending. At direct-mode pricing (

0.57/strain), the theoretical cost to process the current queue is **~

1,568** for research + ~ $239** for music = **~$ 1,807 total.

Strain Research Pipeline (Trigger.dev v2)

The pipeline chains 7 stages, each with its own external API calls. Here’s exactly what happens per strain and what it costs.

Pipeline Architecture

Stage 01: Search (Exa)

Neural search for web articles about the strain. Returns 25 results with extracted text snippets.

Detail	Value
API	Exa (`search()`)
Calls per strain	1
Results requested	25
Search type	`auto` (hybrid neural + keyword)
Max chars/result	5,000
Trigger.dev machine	small-1x

Stage 02: Filter (Local)

Filters search results to URLs that actually mention the strain name. Uses 11 pattern variants (slugs, no-spaces, accent-normalized, spelling variants). No external API calls.

Detail	Value
API	None (local pattern matching)
Typical output	5-15 relevant URLs

Stage 03: Scrape (Firecrawl)

Batch-scrapes all filtered URLs to extract markdown content.

Detail	Value
API	Firecrawl (`asyncBatchScrapeUrls()`)
Calls per strain	1 batch call
URLs per batch	5-15 (avg ~10)
Credits consumed	1 credit per URL (~10/strain)
Format	Markdown only, main content
Trigger.dev machine	medium-2x

Stage 04: Extract (Gemini)

Structured data extraction from each scraped article — terpenes, effects, aromas, lineage, awards, cannabinoids.

Detail	Value
API	Google Gemini
Model	`gemini-3.1-flash-lite`
Calls per strain	~10 (one per article, parallel)
Input tokens/article	~12,500 (50k char limit)
Output tokens/article	~2,000 (structured JSON)
Total tokens/strain	~125k input + ~20k output
Trigger.dev machine	medium-2x (concurrency: 40)

Stage 05: Process (Claude AI)

Three-pass FactFinder + Copywriter + Image Prompt generation. This is the most expensive stage.5 API calls per strain:

Pass	Model	Max Tokens	Purpose
FactFinder Core	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	4,096	Strain type, lineage, cannabinoids
FactFinder Profile	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	4,096	Terpenes, effects, aromas
FactFinder Meta	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	4,096	Medical uses, awards, conflicts
Copywriter	`claude-sonnet-4-6`	8,192	Marketing descriptions, Professor High insights
Image Prompts	`claude-sonnet-4-6`	4,096	Hero + mascot image generation prompts

The 3 FactFinder passes run in parallel (Promise.all()). Copywriter and Image Prompts run sequentially with 6-second checkpointed waits between them.

Detail	Value
Total Haiku tokens	~30k input + ~9k output
Total Sonnet tokens	~20k input + ~9k output
Trigger.dev machine	medium-2x (concurrency: 15)

Stage 06: Imaging (Gemini)

Generates 2 AI images per strain at 2K resolution (2048×2048px).

Detail	Value
API	Google Gemini
Model	`gemini-3.1-flash-image-preview`
Images per strain	2 (hero + mascot)
Resolution	2K (2048×2048px, 1680 output tokens/image)
Storage	Supabase (`strain-images/` and `mascot-images/` buckets)
Trigger.dev machine	large-1x (4 vCPU, 8GB RAM for base64)

Stage 07: Save (Supabase)

Atomic dual-table write via upsert_strain_dual_table RPC. Writes to both strains_master (JSONB) and strains_v2 (columns) in a single transaction.

Detail	Value
API	Supabase RPC
Cost	Included in Supabase plan

Per-Strain Cost: Direct Mode (Self-Serve)

This is the production pricing model. Since we switched to self-serve (on-demand per user visit), all strains are processed in direct mode.

Stage	Service	Units	Cost
01 Search	Exa (1 search, 25 results)	1 API call	$0.007
02 Filter	Local pattern matching	—	$0.000
03 Scrape	Firecrawl (~10 URLs)	~10 credits	$0.010
04 Extract	Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite (~10 articles)	~125k in + ~20k out	$0.061
05 FactFinder	Claude Haiku 4.5 (×3 passes)	~30k in + ~9k out	$0.075
05 Copywriter	Claude Sonnet 4.6	~15k in + ~6k out	$0.135
05 Image Prompts	Claude Sonnet 4.6	~5k in + ~3k out	$0.060
06 Imaging	Gemini 3.1 Flash Image (2 × 2K)	2 images	$0.202
07 Save	Supabase RPC	—	$0.000
Compute	Trigger.dev (8 runs, ~105s active)	—	$0.021
Total			~$0.57 / strain

Cost by Provider

Provider	Cost/Strain	Share
Anthropic (Claude)	$0.270	47%
Google (Gemini)	$0.263	46%
Trigger.dev	$0.021	4%
Firecrawl	$0.010	2%
Exa	$0.007	1%

Cost by Stage

Stage	Cost/Strain	Share
06 Imaging (Gemini)	$0.202	35%
05 Copywriter (Sonnet)	$0.135	24%
05 FactFinder (Haiku ×3)	$0.075	13%
04 Extract (Gemini)	$0.061	11%
05 Image Prompts (Sonnet)	$0.060	11%
Compute (Trigger.dev)	$0.021	4%
03 Scrape (Firecrawl)	$0.010	2%
01 Search (Exa)	$0.007	1%

Per-Strain Cost: Batch Mode (Reference)

Batch mode is no longer the primary processing model but remains available for bulk backfills or special operations. Batch discounts apply to Stage 05 (Anthropic Batch API, 50% off) and Stage 06 (Gemini Batch API, 50% off). Other stages are unchanged.

Stage	Direct	Batch	Savings
01 Search (Exa)	$0.007	$0.007	—
02 Filter (Local)	$0.000	$0.000	—
03 Scrape (Firecrawl)	$0.010	$0.010	—
04 Extract (Gemini)	$0.061	$0.061	—
05 FactFinder (Haiku ×3)	$0.075	$0.038	50%
05 Copywriter (Sonnet)	$0.135	$0.068	50%
05 Image Prompts (Sonnet)	$0.060	$0.030	50%
06 Imaging (Gemini 2×2K)	$0.202	$0.101	50%
07 Save (Supabase)	$0.000	$0.000	—
Compute (Trigger.dev)	$0.021	$0.018	~14%
Total	$0.571	$0.333	42%

Strain Music Pipeline

Auto-fires after research completes. Generates a unique AI song per strain using Google Lyria 3 Pro. Always runs in direct mode (no Lyria batch API exists).

Stage 01: Analyze

Fetches strain data and downloads hero/mascot images for multimodal input. No AI call.

Stage 02: Build Prompt (Gemini)

AI generates a creative, strain-specific Lyria 3 prompt from the strain’s terpene profile, effects, aromas, and Professor High insight.

Detail	Value
Model	`gemini-3.1-flash-lite`
Tokens	~2k input + ~2k output

Stage 03: Generate (Lyria 3 Pro)

Generates a full 3-minute song with lyrics. Takes the text prompt + hero image + mascot image as multimodal input.

Detail	Value
Model	`lyria-3-pro-preview`
Price	$0.08 per song (fixed)
Output	MP3 audio (~4MB) + lyrics text
Concurrency	3 (rate-limited)

Stage 04: Upload

Uploads MP3 to Supabase Storage (strain-music bucket) and updates strains_v2 with audio metadata. No AI call.

Per-Strain Music Cost

Component	Cost
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite (prompt building)	$0.001
Lyria 3 Pro (full song)	$0.080
Trigger.dev (5 runs, ~80s active)	$0.006
Supabase Storage (~4MB)	~$0.000
Total	~$0.087 / strain

Combined Per-Strain Total

Pipeline	Direct Mode	Batch Mode
Research (7 stages)	$0.571	$0.333
Music (4 stages)	$0.087	$0.087
Combined	$0.658	$0.420

Scale Projections

Self-Serve Model (Direct Mode — Production)

All strains researched on-demand at direct-mode pricing (

0.57 research +

0.087 music).

Research Only ($0.57/strain)

Strains	Cost
10	$5.71
50	$28.55
100	$57.10
500	$285.50
1,000	$571
2,750 (current queue)	$1,570
5,000	$2,855
10,000	$5,710

Research + Music ($0.66/strain)

Strains	Cost
10	$6.58
50	$32.90
100	$65.80
500	$329
1,000	$658
2,750 (current queue)	$1,810
5,000	$3,290
10,000	$6,580

Batch Mode (Reference — Bulk Backfill)

If batch mode were used for a large backfill operation (

0.33 research +

0.087 music).

Strains	Research Only	Research + Music
1,000	$333	$420
2,750 (current queue)	$916	$1,155
5,000	$1,665	$2,100
10,000	$3,330	$4,200

Self-Serve Usage Estimates

Since the pipeline is now self-serve (triggered by user visits), actual costs depend on user traffic:

Daily Researches	Monthly Cost (Research)	Monthly Cost (Research + Music)
5/day	$85.50	$98.70
10/day	$171	$197.40
25/day	$427.50	$493.50
50/day	$855	$987
100/day	$1,710	$1,974

Monthly Fixed Costs (Subscriptions)

These are paid regardless of usage volume.

Service	Plan	Monthly Cost	What’s Included
Trigger.dev	Pro	$50	$50 compute credit (~2,380 strains worth)
Firecrawl	Standard	$99	100k scrape credits (~10,000 strains worth)
Exa	Pay-per-use	$0 base	First 1,000 searches/month free
Anthropic	Pay-per-use	$0 base	—
Google AI (Gemini + Lyria)	Pay-per-use	$0 base	—
Supabase	Pro (shared)	Already paying	Included with platform
Vercel	Pro (3 projects)	Already paying	API + Website + Mobile Web hosting
Convex	Pro	Already paying	User data, real-time sync
Clerk	Pro	Already paying	Authentication
Total fixed		~$149/mo	(pipeline-specific)

Credit Budgeting

Firecrawl Credit Budget

100,000 credits/month included in Standard plan
At ~10 URLs/strain: supports ~10,000 strains/month
Extra credits if needed: $57/30,000 = **$ 1.90 per 1,000 credits**
At self-serve pace (25/day): ~750 strains/month — well within included credits

Trigger.dev Compute Budget

$50 included usage/month on Pro plan
At $0.021/strain compute: covers ~2,380 strains/month
At self-serve pace (25/day): ~750 strains/month × $0.021 = **$ 15.75/month** — well within budget
Beyond included: billed at per-second machine rates

Exa Search Budget

First 1,000 searches/month free on paid plans
Beyond free tier: $7 per 1,000 searches
At self-serve pace (25/day): ~750/month — covered by free tier

Vendor Pricing Reference

Direct links to current pricing documentation for every external service used.

AI Models

Vendor	Pricing Page	Models We Use
Anthropic (Claude)	anthropic.com/pricing	Haiku 4.5, Sonnet 4.6
Google Gemini	ai.google.dev/pricing	3.1 Flash Lite, 3.1 Flash Image
Google Lyria 3	ai.google.dev/pricing (bottom of page)	Lyria 3 Pro ($0.08/song)

Search & Scraping

Vendor	Pricing Page	What We Use
Exa	exa.ai/pricing	Search endpoint ($7/1k)
Firecrawl	firecrawl.dev/pricing	Scrape (1 credit/page)

Infrastructure

Vendor	Pricing Page	What We Use
Trigger.dev	trigger.dev/pricing	Pro plan, compute + invocations
Vercel	vercel.com/pricing	Pro plan, 3 projects
Supabase	supabase.com/pricing	Pro plan, DB + Storage
Convex	convex.dev/pricing	Pro plan, user data
Clerk	clerk.com/pricing	Pro plan, auth

Unit Pricing Tables

Detailed per-token / per-unit pricing for the specific models and tiers we use.

Anthropic Claude (Direct vs Batch)

Model	Input (Direct)	Output (Direct)	Input (Batch)	Output (Batch)
Haiku 4.5 (`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`)	$1.00/MTok	$5.00/MTok	$0.50/MTok	$2.50/MTok
Sonnet 4.6 (`claude-sonnet-4-6`)	$3.00/MTok	$15.00/MTok	$1.50/MTok	$7.50/MTok

MTok = million tokens. Batch API gives a flat 50% discount on both input and output.

Google Gemini (Standard vs Batch)

Model	Input (Std)	Output (Std)	Input (Batch)	Output (Batch)
3.1 Flash Lite (text)	$0.25/MTok	$1.50/MTok	$0.125/MTok	$0.75/MTok
3.1 Flash Image (text input)	$0.50/MTok	$3.00/MTok	$0.25/MTok	$1.50/MTok
3.1 Flash Image (per 2K image)	—	$0.101	—	$0.050

Trigger.dev Compute (Pro Plan)

Machine	vCPU	RAM	Cost/sec	Cost/hour
micro	0.25	0.25 GB	$0.0000169	$0.061
small-1x	0.5	0.5 GB	$0.0000338	$0.122
medium-2x	2	4 GB	$0.0001700	$0.612
large-1x	4	8 GB	$0.0003400	$1.224

Run invocation: **

0.000025/run** (

0.25 per 10,000 runs). Waits longer than 5 seconds are checkpointed and free (no compute charges).

Cost Math: Worked Example

Here’s the full math for one strain researched in direct mode, showing exactly how each number is calculated.

Stage 01: Exa Search — $0.007

1 search call
Exa pricing: $7 per 1,000 searches
Cost: 1 / 1,000 × $7 = **$ 0.007**

Stage 03: Firecrawl Scrape — $0.010

~10 URLs scraped (1 credit each)
Standard plan: 100k credits for $99 =$ 0.00099/credit
Cost: 10 × $0.00099 = **~$ 0.010**

Stage 04: Gemini Extraction — $0.061

~10 articles × 12,500 input tokens = 125,000 input tokens
~10 articles × 2,000 output tokens = 20,000 output tokens
Input: 125,000 / 1,000,000 × $0.25 =$ 0.03125
Output: 20,000 / 1,000,000 × $1.50 =$ 0.03000
Total: ~$0.061

Stage 05: Claude FactFinder (3 passes) — $0.075

3 passes × ~10k input tokens = 30,000 input tokens (Haiku 4.5)
3 passes × ~3k output tokens = 9,000 output tokens
Input: 30,000 / 1,000,000 × $1.00 =$ 0.030
Output: 9,000 / 1,000,000 × $5.00 =$ 0.045
Total: $0.075

Stage 05: Claude Copywriter — $0.135

~15,000 input tokens (Sonnet 4.6)
~6,000 output tokens (max 8,192)
Input: 15,000 / 1,000,000 × $3.00 =$ 0.045
Output: 6,000 / 1,000,000 × $15.00 =$ 0.090
Total: $0.135

Stage 05: Claude Image Prompts — $0.060

~5,000 input tokens (Sonnet 4.6)
~3,000 output tokens (max 4,096)
Input: 5,000 / 1,000,000 × $3.00 =$ 0.015
Output: 3,000 / 1,000,000 × $15.00 =$ 0.045
Total: $0.060

Stage 06: Gemini Imaging (2 × 2K) — $0.202

2 images at 2K resolution (2048×2048px)
Each 2K image = 1,680 output tokens
Per image: 1,680 / 1,000,000 × $60.00 =$ 0.1008
Text input prompts (~4k tokens): 4,000 / 1,000,000 × $0.50 =$ 0.002
Total: 2 × $0.101 +$ 0.002 = ~$0.202

Trigger.dev Compute — $0.021

8 task runs (orchestrator + 7 stages)
Run invocations: 8 × $0.000025 =$ 0.0002
Compute (checkpointed waits are free):
- Orchestrator: ~3s × small-1x = $0.0001
- Stage 01: ~8s × small-1x = $0.0003
- Stage 02: ~3s × micro = $0.0001
- Stage 03: ~8s × medium-2x = $0.0014
- Stage 04: ~30s × medium-2x = $0.0051
- Stage 05: ~20s × medium-2x = $0.0034
- Stage 06: ~30s × large-1x = $0.0102
- Stage 07: ~3s × small-1x = $0.0001
Total: ~$0.021

Music: Lyria 3 Pro — $0.087

Gemini prompt builder: ~2k in + ~2k out at Flash Lite pricing = ~$0.001
Lyria 3 Pro: fixed $0.080 per full song
Trigger.dev compute (5 runs, ~80s): ~$0.006
Total: ~$0.087

Potential Cost Optimizations

Ranked by impact, for future consideration:

Optimization	Savings/Strain	Impact	Trade-off
Switch to 1K images (1024px)	~$0.068	12%	Lower image quality
Use Haiku for Image Prompts	~$0.040	7%	Potentially less creative prompts
Use Gemini Batch for extraction	~$0.030	5%	Adds latency (bad for self-serve)
Reduce search to 15 results	~$0.020	4%	Fewer source articles
Use Lyria 3 Clip (30s) instead of Pro	~$0.040	Music: 46%	Short clips instead of full songs

Most batch-mode optimizations don’t apply to the self-serve model since users expect results in 5-10 minutes. The Anthropic Batch API takes hours and is incompatible with on-demand research.

Other Platform Costs

Services that are already paid and shared across the platform (not per-strain).

Service	Plan	Monthly	Purpose
Vercel	Pro (3 projects)	~$60	API, Website, Mobile Web hosting
Supabase	Pro	~$25	PostgreSQL, Storage, Auth
Convex	Pro	~$25	Real-time user data sync
Clerk	Pro	~$25	Authentication
Mintlify	Starter	~$0	Documentation site
Sentry	Team	~$26	Error monitoring
EAS (Expo)	Production	~$99	iOS builds and submissions

These are approximate monthly costs. Actual amounts may vary based on usage tiers and billing cycles. Check each vendor dashboard for current billing.

Version History

Date	Change
March 29, 2026	Initial cost analysis — all models verified from code, pricing from vendor docs
July 3, 2026	Data snapshot corrected: 2,525 strains researched, 2,750 in unprocessed queue, ~25,000 unmatched competitor strains tracked; pipeline throughput ≈0/week recently (restart decision pending). Backlog cost projections updated to the current queue size.

​Overview

​Strain Research Pipeline (Trigger.dev v2)

​Pipeline Architecture

​Per-Strain Cost: Direct Mode (Self-Serve)

​Cost by Provider

​Cost by Stage

​Per-Strain Cost: Batch Mode (Reference)

​Strain Music Pipeline

​Per-Strain Music Cost

​Combined Per-Strain Total

​Scale Projections

​Self-Serve Model (Direct Mode — Production)

Research Only ($0.57/strain)

Research + Music ($0.66/strain)

​Batch Mode (Reference — Bulk Backfill)

​Self-Serve Usage Estimates

​Monthly Fixed Costs (Subscriptions)

​Credit Budgeting

​Vendor Pricing Reference

​AI Models

​Search & Scraping

​Infrastructure

​Unit Pricing Tables

​Anthropic Claude (Direct vs Batch)

​Google Gemini (Standard vs Batch)

​Trigger.dev Compute (Pro Plan)

​Cost Math: Worked Example

​Potential Cost Optimizations

​Other Platform Costs

​Version History

Overview

Strain Research Pipeline (Trigger.dev v2)

Pipeline Architecture

Per-Strain Cost: Direct Mode (Self-Serve)

Cost by Provider

Cost by Stage

Per-Strain Cost: Batch Mode (Reference)

Strain Music Pipeline

Per-Strain Music Cost

Combined Per-Strain Total

Scale Projections

Self-Serve Model (Direct Mode — Production)

Batch Mode (Reference — Bulk Backfill)

Self-Serve Usage Estimates

Monthly Fixed Costs (Subscriptions)

Credit Budgeting

Vendor Pricing Reference

AI Models

Search & Scraping

Infrastructure

Unit Pricing Tables

Anthropic Claude (Direct vs Batch)

Google Gemini (Standard vs Batch)

Trigger.dev Compute (Pro Plan)

Cost Math: Worked Example

Potential Cost Optimizations

Other Platform Costs

Version History