Blog
LLM API pricing, cost-cutting strategies, and real-world math.
The Cheapest LLM APIs in 2026 (and what you're giving up)
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite, GPT-4o mini, and DeepSeek V3.1 are the three cheapest usable LLM APIs in April 2026. Here's how the price math actually breaks down.
2026-04-22Claude Opus 4.7 vs GPT-5 vs Gemini 2.5 Pro — real cost math
Apples-to-apples cost comparison of the three frontier models at coding-agent, chatbot, and long-doc workloads. Includes cached-input math.
2026-04-22Prompt caching, explained with real math
Anthropic cached input is 10% of regular. OpenAI is 25-50%. Google is 25%. Here's when caching actually saves money and when it's a trap.
2026-04-22Three LLM routing strategies that actually cut costs
Classifier-first, cascading, and confidence-based routing. When each one works, with example numbers for a 100K-requests/month app.
2026-04-22Context window vs cost — when a 2M window beats a 128K one
Bigger context isn't always better value. Here's when paying for Gemini's 2M window saves money over RAG-chunking on a smaller model.
2026-04-22Open-weights models: when are they actually cheaper?
DeepSeek, Llama, Qwen on Groq, Together, Fireworks — and when self-hosting finally makes sense. Real numbers for different traffic levels.
2026-04-22Seven hidden costs in LLM API bills
The sticker price isn't the bill. Retries, tool-call loops, JSON mode overhead, image tokens, function descriptions — what actually inflates your invoice.
2026-04-22