Stage 1 · Lesson 6 of 6
Model facts go stale: date everything
Model names, prices and change every few weeks. In 2026 alone, the main providers each shipped several new versions, cut or raised prices, and retired older models. So treat every comparison table as a snapshot: write the date at the top, link the provider page it came from, and plan to check it again every quarter.
Read provider pages, not screenshots or social media posts, because second-hand numbers are often months old. The skills in this roadmap (writing requirements, working out , running your own comparison) last for years. The table you build today is a photograph of one moment, and that is fine as long as you know it.
A question to check yourself, an AI practice session and 1 cheat sheet entry come with the full roadmap. Unlock
Resources for this stage
Start with· follow one of these
- CoursePaidGrokking Modern AI Fundamentals
Design Gurus · Beginner · $72 one-time
A structured grounding in how models, tokens and embeddings work before you compare them
- GuideFreeApplied LLMs: What We Learned From a Year of Building
Yan, Bartolo, Fu and others · Advanced
Free: practitioners on starting with a strong model, then measuring before you step down