Hi!
All techs cost 1900 now (ver 1.2.34). Is that on purpose?

Startup setting tech scaling maximums by category were modified and additional options created in 1.2.33.
If the setting was Default, then due to the endpoint being increased the cost per tech would be higher for a given amount of researched technologies.

Startup tech scaling settings were given descriptive tooltips as well, hover to view.

So this is scaling and it's intended. It wasn't that obvious. Okay. Thank you!

Just for the record.
Default settings - linear, max cost 12500
83 technologies have been researched.
The current cost is 1,900.
I can reduce it using "Technology cost scaling", but to do that, I need to change this setting and then research something.

Nice question!
This was helpful.

I was surprised at how suddenly the difficulty of my research increased. (ver 1.2.33)
I reverted the version for now. (ver 1.2.32)
I found that if I adjusted the setting "Thecknology cost scaling", I could upgrade as the current experience.

As of 1.2.33 the Technology cost scaling values are—
["Sunday stroll"] = 207,
["Walk in the park"] = 415,
["Almost free"] = 831,
["Very Cheap"] = 1662,
["More Cheap"] = 3325,
["Cheap"] = 6750,
["Default"] = 12500,
["Less Expensive"] = 25000,
["Expensive"] = 50000,
["Very Expensive"] = 100000

Previously "Default" was 2000, so selecting Very Cheap or More cheap would be closest to the previous difficulty.

FORMULA DERIVATION — Technology Cost Scaling
Setup:
Start point A = (0, C) → C = start price
End point B = (N, X) → X = max cost
N = total tech count, n = current tech index
Cost functions:
Linear: cost(n) = (X − C) / N · n + C
Quadratic: cost(n) = (X − C) / N² · n² + C
Exponential: cost(n) = exp(n/N · ln(X + 1 − C)) + C − 1
Technology price multiplier forms (cost(n) / C):
Linear: f_lin = (X − C) / (N·C) · n + 1
Quadratic: f_qua = (X − C) / (N²·C) · n² + 1
Exponential: f_exp = (exp(n/N · ln(X + 1 − C)) − 1) / C + 1
Integrated cost (total science packs):
Linear: Area_lin = N/2 · (X + C)
Quadratic: Area_qua = N/3 · (X + 2C)
Exponential: Area_exp = N · (C − 1 + (X + 1 − C) / ln(X + 1 − C))
Large X approximation:
Area_exp ≈ N·X / 9
Area_qua ≈ N·X / 3
Area_lin ≈ N·X / 2
Relative difficulty:
Exponential < Quadratic < Linear — exponential ramps gently early, punishes late; linear spikes early, eases late; quadratic is intermediate.

As of 1.2.39 the technology cost multiplier updates whenever the configuration is changed, instead of requiring a research to be completed to take effect.