Guides
Plain-English breakdowns of what it costs to run AI.
Is it cheaper to self-host, or just use an API?
Renting a GPU looks cheap next to a per-token bill - until you count the idle hours. The arithmetic that decides it.
Six levers to cut your LLM API bill
Before you switch providers, pull these levers - most teams leave 40-70% on the table.
What does it really cost to run an LLM?
A full breakdown: how per-token pricing works, why the same model costs different amounts for a chatbot, a RAG app and an agent, and when a rented GPU beats the API.
Prompt caching: the first lever to pull on a RAG bill
If your requests share a long opening block - a system prompt, a document, a tool schema - you are paying full price to recompute it every call. Here is how much caching saves and how to turn it on.
The Batch API: half price for anything that can wait
Every major LLM provider has an asynchronous batch lane at roughly 50% of the normal per-token price. If a job does not need an answer in seconds, it belongs there.