Ideogram 4.5: low drafts then one high final, or high only? Break-even

A common workflow is to generate several cheap drafts, pick one and re-render it at high quality. On Sume's Ideogram 4.5, a low render is $0.039562 all-in and a high render is $0.290125, a ratio of 7.3 to 1. Drafting adds cost unless the drafts save you from high renders you would have thrown away.

Sume prices every job at the vendor list price × 1.25, then adds a 5.5% fee on that result, so $1.00 of list becomes $1.31875 (how the formula works). The tables below show both the catalog price (list × 1.25) and the all-in figure with the fee.

The cost of drafting

Take k low drafts and one high final per keeper. The cost is k × low + high. Compare it with the high-only path: n high renders until you accept one, which costs n × high; the last column is that cost divided by one high render.

The break-even

Drafting beats high-only when you would otherwise need more than (k × low + high) / high high renders, which is 1.41 at three drafts and 1.82 at six. If your high renders are accepted on the first try more than that fraction of the time, skip the drafts.

For prompts you are still tuning, drafts win easily; for a locked prompt with a known keeper rate, go straight to high. See when $0.22 pays for the quality side.