Large Language Model (LLM)

A large language model is a system trained on very large amounts of text to predict likely continuations. That single ability underlies writing, summarising, classifying, extracting and answering — it is not a database and does not look facts up unless connected to one.

Because a model predicts plausible text rather than retrieving stored facts, it will produce a fluent, confident, wrong answer as readily as a right one. This is not a bug being fixed; it's what the mechanism does. Reliability comes from the system built around the model — grounding it in real documents, constraining it to a set of tools, checking its output.

Practically, models differ on three axes that matter more than benchmark scores: cost per token, latency, and how well they follow instructions under pressure. A cheaper, faster model that reliably returns valid JSON often beats a smarter one that occasionally decides to explain itself instead.

Why it matters

The question is never "which model is best" but "what happens when it's wrong." A business process that can't tolerate a confident error needs a verification step, not a better model.

Related terms

RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)RAG is the technique of searching your own documents for passages relevant to a question, then giving those passages to a language model along with th…HallucinationA hallucination is output that is fluent, confident and false — an invented citation, a policy that doesn't exist, a fabricated order number. It's a d…PromptA prompt is the input given to a language model — the instructions, context and data it uses to produce output. In production, prompts are versioned a…TokenA token is the unit language models read and generate — roughly three-quarters of a word in English. Model pricing is per token, so tokens are the uni…

More in AI Automation & Agents

AI AgentWorkflow AutomationRAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)EmbeddingVector DatabaseHallucinationHuman in the LoopGuardrailsTool Use (Function Calling)Model Context Protocol (MCP)PromptTokenEvalsIdempotencyWebhookAPI IntegrationAI Voice Agent

Need this built rather than explained?

We publish every price we charge, and you get a quote in writing before anything starts.

See every price
All terms