Training an LLM Model: How Long Does It Take & How Much Does Each Step Cost?
From Our Knowledge Base
(Uses GPT-4 as an example, with GPT 4 as the agent…)
Training GPT-4 involved massive data processing, compute-intensive training, and months of fine-tuning—all of which incur substantial costs. Below is an accurate cost breakdown per stage, reflecting what’s required for a single training cycle of a 1.76T parameter model.
The Steps
1. Pre-Processing
This stage ensures high-quality, cleaned, and structured input data for training.
Cost Breakdown (Per Month):
💰 Compute: $15M–$25M
⚡ Energy: $2M–$5M
💾 Storage: $5M–$10M
⏳ Total Time Required: 2–3 months
✅ Total Cost: $40M–$70M
Savings
$40M–$70M total, 2–3 months
2. Post-Preprocessing
Further data refinement through feature selection, dimensionality reduction, and embedding generation.
Cost Breakdown (Per Month):
💰 Compute: $8M–$12M
⚡ Energy: $1M–$3M
💾 Storage: $2M–$5M
⏳ Total Time Required: 1.5 months
✅ Total Cost: $15M–$30M
Savings
$15M–$30M total, 1.5 months
3. Model Training
The most compute-heavy phase—thousands of high-end GPUs running in parallel for months.
Cost Breakdown (Per Month):
💰 Compute: $30M–$45M
⚡ Energy: $5M–$10M
💾 Storage: $2M–$5M
⏳ Total Time Required: 3–4 months
✅ Total Cost: $100M–$180M
Savings
$100M–$180M total, 3–4 months
4. Fine-Tuning & Evaluation
Final model optimization, RLHF alignment, and safety testing.
Cost Breakdown (Per Month):
💰 Compute: $8M–$15M
⚡ Energy: $2M–$5M
💾 Storage: $2M–$5M
⏳ Total Time Required: 2 months
✅ Total Cost: $25M–$50M
Savings
$25M–$50M total, 2 months
Total Cost
of a Single Training Cycle for GPT-4
✅ Total Cost (All Stages): $180M–$330M
✅ Total Timeframe: ~9 months (7.5–10.5 months range)
(NOTE: OpenAI has not publicly disclosed the exact number of training cycles required to develop GPT-4. Typically, training large language models involves multiple iterations and fine-tuning phases to achieve optimal performance. However, specific details about GPT-4’s training process remain proprietary.)
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