Live23 Sept 2026/8 verified items today/Claim check: Yes, a 744B model runs on a laptop with no GPU/Daily digest
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Intermediate · first result in 1 hour

Cut my AI API bill

The problem

Our AI costs grow every month and we don't know which lever to pull first.

What you'll get

Most teams can cut spend substantially without losing quality by applying four levers in order.

Best options right now

Pick one

Last checked 23 Sept 2026

Prompt caching

Repeated system prompts, documents or tool definitions; cached input is billed at a fraction of the normal rate
EasySaves money

Batch APIs

Anything that can wait minutes or hours: typically around 50% cheaper
EasySaves ~50%

Model tiering

Send simple work (classification, routing) to a small model and hard work to a strong one
MediumSaves money

Lower effort / shorter outputs

Routine tasks that don't need deep reasoning
EasySaves money

Do this first

  1. Put your workload into our cost calculator to see where the money goes: input, output or cache.
  2. Move stable content (instructions, docs) to the start of the prompt and turn on caching.
  3. Move non-urgent jobs to the batch API.
  4. Test a cheaper model on your real tasks and compare cost per completed task, not per request.

Watch out for

  • Timestamps or IDs at the top of a prompt silently break caching. Put volatile content last.
  • A cheaper model that needs retries can cost more overall.

Go deeper

Other problems we solve