The Cost Problem
Most teams underestimate AI API costs. A single GPT-4 call costs $0.03. Multiply by 10,000 daily users making 5 requests each, and you are looking at $45,000 monthly. Without proper optimization, AI features can bankrupt your margins.
Optimization Strategies
We implement semantic caching with Redis to reduce API calls by 70%. Prompt compression techniques cut token usage by 40%. For non-critical features, we route requests to smaller, cheaper models that handle 80% of cases effectively.
Monitoring and Fallbacks
Every AI feature needs circuit breakers. When API latency exceeds 2 seconds or error rates climb above 5%, we gracefully degrade to rule-based alternatives. Users rarely notice the difference, but your uptime dashboard stays green.