DadgogoAI Dictionary

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test-time compute

noun \ˈtest ˈtīm kəm-ˈpyüt\

also inference-time compute or inference scaling

TopicChips & Infrastructure First known use2024 Senses1
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Definition of test-time compute

  1. : extra computing power spent while answering a question, for example by letting the model think longer or try several answers, instead of only making the model bigger during training

    • Doubling test-time compute raised the math score more than doubling the model size.
    • Reasoning models made test-time compute the new scaling frontier.

Origin & history

first known use2024

Became a central idea in 2024 with the arrival of reasoning models.

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Related terms

reasoning model a language model trained to work through a problem step by step before giving its final… inference the act of running a trained model to produce an output, such as answering a prompt or… scaling laws observed patterns showing that model performance improves in a predictable way as you increase… chain of thought a series of intermediate reasoning steps a model writes out before its final answer, either… opaque recurrence a technique in which a model reasons by looping information through its internal layers…

Cite this entry

"Test-time compute." AI Dictionary, Dadgogo, https://dadgogo.com/dictionary/test-time-compute/. Accessed 4 Oct. 2026.

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