Skip to the text
Et Al.
Vol. 1 · No. 1 · November 2026 Models and limits p. 5.4

Models and limits

What is available today, how big a request may be, and how much you may use.

Models

ModelAPI stringAliasPer callTypical speed
QED 1writerqed-2026bqed2,000 words in; voice passages 1,500 words; document context 1,200 words3 s for 200 words
Sic 1detectorsic-2026asic10,000 words2 s per 1,000 words
QED Minorforthcoming Smaller and faster.
QED Majorforthcoming Largest.
Sic Minorforthcoming Smaller and faster.
Sic Majorforthcoming Largest.

Dated strings are fixed checkpoints. Aliases move to each family's current default when a new one is released. A replaced checkpoint stays callable by its dated string: qed-2026a, the first release of QED 1, was superseded by qed-2026b.

Both models are kept warm, so there is no start-up delay. Neither streams its output.

Limits

Requests per minute20 per account by default.
Concurrent requests4 per account by default.
Monthly allowance$5.00 of use at list price by default. It resets on the first of the month, UTC.
Request size2 MB.

Limits are per account, not per key. If you need more for a study or a class, write to hello@etal-labs.com and say roughly how much.

Prices

There is no billing yet. Usage is counted against the monthly allowance at these indicative prices.

QED 1$2.00 per million input tokens and $6.00 per million output tokens. A 200-word passage from a short brief costs about $0.002. Voice passages count as input on every call.
Sic 1$0.01 per 1,000 words.
CompareFree without the judge. With it, the judge model's own cost, about $0.005 per check.

QED checks each output before returning it and regenerates one that fails. Regenerated samples are metered, and the response says how many were taken.

What we keep

  • Not your text. The text you send and the text the models return are processed in memory and not written to our database or logs.
  • Request records. Endpoint, model, sizes in words and tokens, cost, latency and status, so that you can see your usage and we can enforce limits.
  • Account. Your email address, and your name if you sign in with Google. API keys and sign-in tokens are stored as hashes.
  • Processors. QED runs on Fireworks AI and Sic on Modal; your text passes through them to be processed. The privacy notice lists everyone involved.