Yield (Υ) Calculator
Enter your four token pillars and see your Υ Yield score, class tier, and cascade shape instantly. Pure arithmetic — nothing leaves your browser.
Enter your four token pillars
Pull these from ccusage --json or npx sigrank me. Token counts only — no prompt content.
A productive cascade — good cache reuse and solid output per input. Compounding, not just burning.
Class thresholds are approximate (IGNITER < 0.5, SEEKER 0.5–2, BUILDER 2–10, TRANSMITTER 10+). For the full paste-based scoring experience with signed submission, see /score.
How yield is computed
Υ = cache_read × output / input². Yield rewards two things at once: reusing cached context (cache_read) and producing dense output per fresh token (output / input). An operator who re-sends the same large context every turn burns input without compounding — low yield. An operator who caches aggressively and extracts high signal per fresh token compounds — high yield. Volume is noise; yield is signal.
The four pillars map directly to the metrics most AI platforms now expose: input (fresh prompt tokens), output (generated tokens), cache-read (prompt-caching hits), and cache-write (new tokens written to cache for future reuse).
Frequently asked questions
What is the Yield (Υ) metric?
Yield (Υ) = cache_read × output / input². It measures the architecture of an AI token cascade — whether cached context is compounding signal into output, or tokens are being burned. It is the headline SigRank operator-efficiency metric.
How is the yield calculator different from the /score page?
This calculator takes four raw token counts and shows the math instantly in your browser. The /score page is the full paste-based flow that can also submit a signed snapshot to the leaderboard. Use this for a quick estimate; use /score to compete.
Where do I get my token counts?
Run `ccusage --json` or `npx sigrank me` to read the four token pillars (input, output, cache-read, cache-write) from your local AI session logs on-device. No prompt content is ever read — only the four integers.
What is a good yield score?
Roughly: below 0.5 is IGNITER (just starting), 0.5–2 is SEEKER, 2–10 is BUILDER (a productive compounding cascade), and 10+ is TRANSMITTER (signal compounds aggressively). These thresholds are approximate.
Does the yield calculator send my data anywhere?
No. All arithmetic runs in your browser. Nothing is transmitted, stored, or logged. The calculator is a pure client-side estimation tool.