research · live from the ledger · 2026-09-02 17:31 utc
What AI content actually costs, and how often it fails
Live figures from every site the engine runs: first-pass rate against a cross-vendor fact-check, drafts rejected, and median cost per article by tier. No sampling, no rounding up.
| Tier | Finished runs | First-pass rate | Median cost / article |
|---|---|---|---|
| standard | 186 | 51.1% | $0.85 |
| lite | 50 | 50% | $0.41 |
| pro | 16 | 25% | $1.45 |
Aggregated across every site the engine runs. First-pass rate = drafts that cleared every check on the first attempt. Updated 2026-09-02 17:31 UTC; cached for ten minutes. AI-assistant probes to date: 5,962, of which 488 cited a customer site.
What this index measures
Three things nobody selling AI content publishes: how often a machine-written draft survives an independent fact-check on the first attempt, how many drafts are rejected outright, and what an article actually costs to produce at each quality tier. The figures update as the engine runs. They cover every site IT Master publishes for, aggregated, with no customer named.
Across all finished runs, 49.2% of AI-written drafts passed an independent cross-vendor check first time; 128 were revised or rejected.
How to read the tiers
Lite uses the smallest writer and the cheapest cross-vendor judges. Standard uses two mid-sized judges per check. Pro uses the strongest models for both writing and judging — and stronger judges reject more, which is why its first-pass rate is lower, not higher. The median cost is our spend on models and research tools per article; it is not the price.
Method
A run is one topic through the full pipeline: research, outline, draft, four parallel checks (fact-check against the dossier and live sources, novelty against the pages already ranking, E-E-A-T critique, AI-pattern scan), up to three revision rounds. First-pass means every check cleared on the first draft. Rejected means the final revision still failed. Costs are summed from every model and tool call in the run, in US dollars. Runs with no recorded cost are excluded.
questions people ask
Where do these numbers come from?
They are computed on request from the engine's own job ledger across every site it runs, with no site named. A run counts as finished when the draft either passed every check or was rejected after its final revision. Nothing is sampled or adjusted.
Why is the first-pass rate so low?
Because the checks are done by models from a different vendor than the writer, and they are told to refute. A first draft that clears a fact-check, a novelty comparison against the pages already ranking, an E-E-A-T critique and an AI-pattern scan on the first attempt is the exception. Most drafts are revised once or twice; some are rejected. We would rather publish this number than a flattering one.
Why does Pro pass less often than Standard?
Pro drafts are judged by stronger models, which are harsher. The tier buys better writing and stricter checking together, so more first drafts are sent back. The sample is also small, and the figure will move.
Is the cost the price a customer pays?
No. It is our median generation cost per article at each tier — the model and tool spend. Customers pay per published article; the price is on the pricing page.
Publish articles that survive this check
Every IT Master article goes through the gauntlet these numbers describe before it reaches your site.