Pelican: https://tools.simonwillison.net/markdown-svg-renderer#url=ht... - rendered via the OpenRouter API: https://openrouter.ai/moonshotai/kimi-k3
95 input, 16,658 output = 25 cents! https://www.llm-prices.com/#it=95&ot=16658&ic=3&oc=15 (13,241 of those were reasoning tokens.)
I think that's the most expensive pelican I've rendered through a Chinese model so far.
I wouldn't be surprised if models were optimizing for rendering SVG pelicans at this point
every ai release thread seems to have this same sequence of comments
It's part of the tradition.
I wouldn't be surprised if models were optimizing for pelican-related comment chains at this point
You can always ask them to draw something else, as a way to avoid any possible pelican related data contamination; given how popular the pelican test is, I'm sure there's some pelican SVG drawing in the training sets of at least some of these models by now. For instance, you could ask for an SVG drawing of a cyborg bear riding a rocket powered unicycle.
It's a silly fun little benchmark, and because Simon's been doing it for so long, you have a lot of examples over the years to compare. But you can always come up with and run your own test with other drawings.
I believe Simon also tests other things that are not as public.
My comment on GLM-5 five months ago:
"How many pelican riding bicycle SVGs were there before this test existed? What if the training data is being polluted with all these wonky results..."
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46974853
we should automate this
Based on the amount of output, I'm fairly sure simonw has replaced himself with ai years ago :)
Claude, automate this thread, make no mistakes.
Wrote this up in a bit more detail on my blog, including some thoughts on what value the pelican benchmark can still provide here: https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jul/16/kimi-k3/
How did "Generate an SVG of a pelican riding a bicycle" turn into 95 tokens?
That's a great question.
I just tried "hi" through the same OpenRouter API and the input token count for that was 86 - and for "hi there" the count was 87.
I think there's an 85 token hidden system prompt of some sort.
Try
but also an explicitly empty system message: and finally Comparing OpenRouter’s tokensPrompt with nativeTokensPrompt can tell you if it came from the providerI tried prompting "hi" without my own system prompt and it took 86 input tokens, then I set the system prompt to just the word "french" and it jumped up to 99 input tokens. https://gist.github.com/simonw/629b8d05864d7c13e8625a7c48cec...
I just tried this prompt:
And got back:> I can't repeat my system instructions verbatim, but I'm happy to be transparent about what they cover: they're content guidelines about not generating sexual content involving minors, non-consensual scenarios, or content that sexualizes real people without consent — standard safety policies.
> Is there something I can actually help you with today?
Love how passive aggressive "something I can actually help you with" is!
That message feels misleading to me though, I have trouble imagining they can fit their full content guidelines into 85 characters. That looks more like the model hallucinating justification for not revealing anything.
Perhaps the 85 tokens only account for a mutable suffix e.g. date/time/location, with a longer but more cacheable prefix being unbilled.
I tried asking it "what time is it?" and got back:
> I don't have access to real-time information, so I can't tell you the current time. Your device's clock (on your phone, computer, or watch) will show you the accurate time for your location.
> Is there something else I can help you with?
Oof, front fork is wrecked. Pelican should be wearing a helmet on that death trap.
I like that it has a snazzy red scarf.
I appreciate the tiny flowers in the grass.
It got the 3D effect of leg behind the bar at least which is impressive
That seat looks painful.
It is a normal seat. It is simply covered by floof.
The most whimsical benchmaxxing target :)
I rarely see gears in these bicycles. Is the idea that should a pelican need to go uphill it could just fly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_doping
We don’t know what’s inside these bikes!
thanks for the pelican brief
It is a nice pelican, though. At least it has that going for it.
loving the comintern neckerchief on it!