◎ AICost Forecast

so you know what you'll pay — before you ship

Know what a new AI feature will really cost

Before you commit engineering quarters to shipping an AI feature, know the all-in cost — API, infrastructure, MLOps, engineering time — and the defensible numbers your CFO can't push back on. Eight workload presets. Realistic assumptions. Shareable plan.

100% FREE · shareable plan
Build a cost plan → See workload presets

WHO SHOWS UP HERE

If one of these sounds like you, keep reading

“We're pitching an AI feature next week. CFO wants unit economics.”
VP Product · Enterprise SaaS
“Board is asking what happens to cost if we 10x our RAG pipeline.”
CTO · Series B Startup
“I need to decide between Bedrock provisioned and Anthropic direct — with real numbers.”
Head of Platform · Fintech
“Our AI roadmap is 12 quarters. We have one-quarter finance visibility.”
Chief of Staff · Scale-up

FREE · SELF-SERVE

Start here. No signup. No gate.

Every tool on this page runs live. Use them, share them, come back if you want us to do it for you.

🧭
Cost Plan Wizard
The flagship tool. 8 workload presets (chatbot, RAG, agent, voice, transcription, classification, vision, batch). Full TCO + scale projection. Shareable URL + PDF export.
Start the wizard →
🧮
Cost Calculator
Quick math for single-model workloads. Tokens × rate × volume. Good for back-of-envelope before committing to a full plan.
Run calculator →
📋
Playbook: AI unit economics
How to structure per-request, per-user, per-feature cost models for a CFO audience.
Read playbook →
📋
Playbook: Hidden TCO of AI
The 9 cost lines that never appear in vendor pricing — infra, eng time, eval, MLOps, data prep.
Read playbook →

DONE-FOR-YOU

Want a human on it? Pick an engagement.

Productized engagements with clear scope, price, and deliverable. No custom SOW negotiation on the first call.

AI Cost Health Check
$2,500
3 days

Quick sanity-check on your own cost plan. We review the model, flag missing lines, sign off for leadership.

Learn more →
AI Cost Assessment
$50,000
4 weeks

Enterprise full TCO: 12-month projection, infra scenarios, model trade-offs, go-to-market pricing implications.

Learn more →
Fractional FinOps Retainer
$10–15K/mo
Ongoing

Ongoing forecasting as workloads evolve. Monthly actual-vs-forecast variance reporting.

Learn more →

DEEP DIVES

Playbooks that go with AICost Forecast

AI unit economics Hidden TCO of AI RAG cost explosion Voice agent cost math Multimodal cost trap

FAQ

Questions we hear before people book a call

How accurate are the Cost Plan projections?

Within ±20% for workloads matching our presets if you give accurate volume assumptions. Token rates are live from our nightly crawler. Infra rates are lookup tables. Engineering time is range-based because it varies most.

Can I share the plan with finance or leadership?

Yes — every plan gets a unique URL and a PDF export. The PDF is gated by email for analytics; the URL is not.

What workloads are supported?

Chatbot, RAG, agent, voice agent, transcription, classification, vision analysis, batch processing. Custom workloads need the Assessment engagement.

Does the Forecast plan update automatically if prices change?

No — it's a snapshot at plan time. For live tracking of vendor price changes affecting your plan, combine Forecast with Clarity's price-watch feed.

INSTANT ANSWERS

Not sure if AICost Forecast is the right fit? Ask.

Describe your situation — we’ll route you to the exact playbook, tool, or engagement that matches.

🧞
AICost Genie — Frameworks · Tools · Playbooks

👋 Tell me what’s going on. I’ll surface the right frameworks, tools, and playbooks — and tell you which product line fits.

Pick the problem closest to yours:

THE OTHER FOUR

Five product lines, one platform

AICost Forecast is one of five outcomes. Keep exploring:

◇ AICost Clarity
so you understand why your bill is what it is
 ✦ AICost Optimize
so you pay less — measurably
 ▲ AICost Risk
so you don't pay later for what goes wrong
 ◢ AICost Leverage
so you negotiate like the Fortune 500 does

Model the cost before you ship the feature.

Free wizard, eight workload presets, defensible numbers for your CFO.

Start Cost Plan Wizard → Book Assessment call
📖 Data sources & methodology 161 text models · 9 embeddings · 24 vision · 41 audio · 8 vector DBs across 10 vendor pages · last verified 2026-06-05

Methodology

  • All prices are USD per 1 million tokens, current as of 2026-06-05.
  • Vendor-published values have no mark. Inferred/extrapolated values are marked with * and listed below.
  • Batch API discounts are 50% off standard rates across providers that offer Batch mode.
  • Prompt caching discounts vary by provider (typically 80-90% off cached input tokens).
  • Regional data-residency surcharges (Anthropic 1.1x, OpenAI 1.1x, Google regional tiers) are NOT included in base rates.
  • Long-context pricing tiers apply when input exceeds model threshold.
  • Embedding prices are input-only (no output tokens generated).

Primary sources

Last-verified date is the most recent successful daily snapshot (aicost_pricing_snapshots) or, when no snapshot exists yet, the latest successful crawler run (aicost_crawler_runs). 10 of 10 vendors are currently verified. Aggregator services (TokenCost, AI Pricing Guru, etc.) are not listed.

Anthropic
2026-06-05
https://www.anthropic.com/pricing
Daily snapshot since Sep 2023 · 578 days captured
Anthropic Docs
2026-06-05
https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/about-claude/pricing
Daily snapshot since Sep 2023 · 578 days captured
OpenAI
2026-06-05
https://openai.com/api/pricing/
Daily snapshot since Sep 2023 · 579 days captured
Google AI
2026-06-05
https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing
Daily snapshot since Dec 2023 · 554 days captured
Google Vertex
2026-06-05
https://cloud.google.com/vertex-ai/generative-ai/pricing
Daily snapshot since Dec 2023 · 554 days captured
DeepSeek
2026-06-05
https://api-docs.deepseek.com/quick_start/pricing
Daily snapshot since May 2024 · 493 days captured
xAI
2026-06-05
https://x.ai/api
Daily snapshot since Nov 2024 · 411 days captured
Mistral
2026-06-05
https://mistral.ai/pricing
Daily snapshot since Dec 2023 · 552 days captured
Cohere
2026-06-05
https://cohere.com/pricing
Daily snapshot since Sep 2023 · 578 days captured
Voyage AI
2026-06-05
https://docs.voyageai.com/docs/pricing

Inferred values (marked with * in calculator tables)

Derived from industry conventions, not directly published by the vendor. Typical conventions: cached input = 10% of base (90% off), Batch API = 50% of base (50% off).

Vendor / Model Field Why it’s inferred
Anthropic — Claude Sonnet 4.6 cachedInput Derived at 10% of input rate — Anthropic publishes 90% cache-hit discount on this tier.
Anthropic — Claude Sonnet 4.5 cachedInput Derived at 10% of input rate; same 90% cache-hit convention as Sonnet 4.6.
Anthropic — Claude Sonnet 4.5 batchInput Derived at 50% of standard input — Anthropic documents uniform 50% Batch discount.
Anthropic — Claude Sonnet 4.5 batchOutput Derived at 50% of standard output — Anthropic documents uniform 50% Batch discount.
Anthropic — Claude Haiku 4.5 cachedInput Derived at 10% of input rate — Anthropic 90% cache-hit discount convention.
OpenAI — GPT-5.4 Mini cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — OpenAI documents automatic 90% discount on cache hits across GPT-5.x tier.
OpenAI — GPT-5.4 Nano cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — OpenAI 90% cache-hit convention.
OpenAI — GPT-5.4 Nano batchInput Derived at 50% of input — OpenAI Batch API uniform 50% discount.
OpenAI — GPT-5.4 Nano batchOutput Derived at 50% of output — OpenAI Batch API uniform 50% discount.
OpenAI — GPT-5.4 Pro cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — OpenAI 90% cache-hit convention.
OpenAI — GPT-5.4 Pro batchInput Derived at 50% of input — OpenAI Batch API uniform 50% discount.
OpenAI — GPT-5.4 Pro batchOutput Derived at 50% of output — OpenAI Batch API uniform 50% discount.
OpenAI — GPT-5.2 cachedInput Derived at 10% of input; no residency uplift.
OpenAI — GPT-5.2 batchInput Derived at 50% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5.2 batchOutput Derived at 50% of output.
OpenAI — GPT-5 cachedInput Derived at 10% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5 batchInput Derived at 50% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5 batchOutput Derived at 50% of output.
OpenAI — GPT-5.5 Pro cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — OpenAI does not publish a cached rate for *-pro models; using the family convention.
OpenAI — GPT-5.5 Pro batchInput Derived at 50% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5.5 Pro batchOutput Derived at 50% of output.
OpenAI — GPT-5.2 Pro cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — pro-tier convention.
OpenAI — GPT-5.2 Pro batchInput Derived at 50% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5.2 Pro batchOutput Derived at 50% of output.
OpenAI — GPT-5.1 batchInput Derived at 50% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5.1 batchOutput Derived at 50% of output.
OpenAI — GPT-5 Pro batchInput Derived at 50% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5 Pro batchOutput Derived at 50% of output.
OpenAI — GPT-5 Nano cachedInput Derived at 10% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5 Nano batchInput Derived at 50% of input.
OpenAI — GPT-5 Nano batchOutput Derived at 50% of output.
Google — Gemini 3 Flash cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — Google caching discount convention ~90%.
Google — Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — Google caching convention.
Google — Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite batchInput Derived at 50% of input — Google Batch API uniform 50% discount.
Google — Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite batchOutput Derived at 50% of output — Google Batch API uniform 50% discount.
Google — Gemini 2.5 Pro cachedInput Derived at 10% of input.
Google — Gemini 2.5 Flash cachedInput Derived at 10% of input.
Google — Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — Google caching convention.
Google — Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite batchInput Derived at 50% of input — Google Batch API uniform 50% discount.
Google — Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite batchOutput Derived at 50% of output — Google Batch API uniform 50% discount.
Google — Gemini 2.0 Flash cachedInput Derived at 25% of input per Google 2.0 family caching rates.
Google — Gemini 2.0 Flash batchInput Derived at 50% of input — Google Batch API uniform 50% discount.
Google — Gemini 2.0 Flash batchOutput Derived at 50% of output — Google Batch API uniform 50% discount.
Google — Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite cachedInput Derived at 10% of input — Google caching convention.
Google — Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite batchInput Derived at 50% of input — Google Batch API uniform 50% discount.
Google — Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite batchOutput Derived at 50% of output — Google Batch API uniform 50% discount.
xAI — Grok 4 (legacy) cachedInput Extrapolated at 25% of base.

Pricing is cross-verified against the LiteLLM community registry when available. Daily snapshots are kept in aicost_pricing_snapshots; every change is logged to aicost_price_changelog with old & new values for full audit trail. Read the full methodology →