Attributed viewpoint · Not a direct quote

Token exhaustion in a pelican-SVG test

In Willison’s pelican-SVG test, Sonnet 5.5 at “max” thinking effort used 128,000 tokens, costing $1.28, before running out of tokens without producing an SVG.

Simon Willison·Published Sep 28, 2026

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Claude Sonnet 5.5

Original excerpt

the "max" thinking effort pelican thought for 128,000 tokens (at a cost of $1.28) before running out of tokens and failing to produce an SVG.

Context

Here are some pelicans riding bicycles . Sonnet 5.5 suffered from the same bug as Opus 5.5 :

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