Cost Optimization

The LLM Cost Trap—and the Playbook to Escape It: Slash AI Expenses by 90% While Boosting Performance

mindmap
  root((LLM Cost Reality))
    Four Cost Pillars
      Infrastructure
        GPU Hours
        VRAM & Storage
        Network Transfer
      Operations
        Monitoring
        24/7 Support
        Autoscaling
      Development
        Engineering Salaries
        Fine-tuning
        Security Reviews
      Opportunity
        Slow Response Times
        Vendor Lock-in
        Lost Agility
    Hidden Expenses
      Cold Start Delays
      Failed Request Billing
      Model Drift
      Hallucination Monitoring
    Escape Strategies
      Smart Routing
      Semantic Caching
      Model Quantization
      Batch Processing
      Hybrid Architecture

Every tech leader who watched ChatGPT explode onto the scene asked the same question: What will a production-grade large language model really cost us? The short answer hits hard—“far more than the API bill.” Yet the long answer delivers hope if you design with care.

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