1 min lesson
Utilization is the efficiency lever
Name the parts in "Utilization is the efficiency lever" and give the practical job of each one.
Step 1 of 2
Utilization is the efficiency leverwhere the wasted money hides
Idle GPU time is money already spent for nothing. GPUs commonly run at 15-30% utilization, which means a fleet can be enormous and still mostly wasted. Driving utilization up is often the single biggest efficiency win available, ahead of buying more hardware.
The numbers to reason with out loud
- Typical utilization
- Often 15-30% - most of the fleet is idle at any given moment unless actively managed.
- Reserved breakeven
- Committed capacity generally beats on-demand only above ~60-80% sustained use.
- The lever order
- Raise utilization first (free capacity you already paid for), then decide reserve-vs-burst, then buy more.
- Demand driver
- Capacity demand tracks DAU, request volume and new model rollouts - forecast against those, not last quarter's average.
Industry-typical ranges to anchor a conversation, not Cursor's published figures.