AI API Cost Guide

API cost planning is not only a developer problem. It affects margins, pricing, customer support workflows, product design, and whether an AI feature can scale profitably.

Main cost drivers

• Request volume
  Even cheap requests become meaningful when usage grows.
• Prompt length
  Long instructions and repeated context raise the baseline cost of every call.
• Output length
  Verbose answers are expensive when they are not necessary.
• Workflow chaining
  Multiple calls per task can multiply total cost faster than expected.

Budgeting rule

Do not estimate from the ideal path only. Include retries, edge cases, QA requests, and usage spikes.