Simon Willison on AI

Simon Willison@simonw

Notes (and a Pelican) on Claude Sonnet 5 - the new tokenizer makes it ~1.4x more expensive for English, ~1.33x more expensive for Spanish but roughly the same price for Simplified Mandarin t.co

325 likes42 repliesPosted Jun 30, 2026

Remix this post

Your note

Private to you, and used when you remix this post.

Viral score

Based on absolute engagement — the platform doesn’t expose follower counts here, so large accounts score higher.

From likes, comments.

Why it worked

Opens with a short, self-contained line that is easy to take in at a glance.
Uses concrete numbers instead of vague claims, which makes it credible and quotable.
The opening line stands alone, so it reads completely before the post is expanded.
Short enough to read in full without expanding, which removes a step before the point lands.

The mechanics

Hook: Plain observation
Structure: Hook → Landing
Style: Conversational paragraphs at a steady pace.
Tone: concrete
Mechanisms: Specificity
Written for: People building with AI

Analysis by ViralLoop — not written by the original author.

Topics

AI Revenue

Post by Simon Willison on X