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AI Billing Insights & Guides

Technical deep dives, pricing strategies, and unit economics for AI startups. Learn from real-world examples and data.

Recent Posts

technical

Multi-Model Routing: How to Cut AI Costs 40-60% Without Sacrificing Quality

Learn how intelligent model routing can dramatically reduce your AI API costs by matching query complexity to the right model—from classification tasks on Haiku to complex reasoning on Opus.

14 min read
cost-optimizationmulti-model-routingai-infrastructure
insights

Why Stripe Is Building AI Billing Tools—And What They're Still Missing

Stripe's Agentic Commerce Protocol confirms traditional SaaS billing is broken for AI. Here's what their announcement means for AI startups—and the gaps that still need solving.

10 min read
stripeusage-based-billingai-infrastructure
insights

Why Every AI Payment System Gets User Experience Wrong

From OpenAI to Anthropic to countless AI startups, payment UX is broken. Users face surprise charges, anxiety about costs, and no control over spending. Here is why current approaches fail and what users actually need.

15 min read
User ExperiencePayment UXProduct Design
insights

Why AI Pricing Should Work Like Uber, Not Like Parking Meters

Current AI payment systems charge per token like parking meters. We propose plan-based pricing that works like Uber: know the cost upfront, approve it, and pay for delivered value. Here is why this matters and where the market is headed.

11 min read
AI PricingUsage-Based BillingProduct Strategy
technical

HTTP 402 Payments: The Technical Reality Nobody Talks About

HTTP 402 Payment Required was designed for digital payments, but nobody uses it. L402 aims to fix that with Bitcoin Lightning. Here is why both fail for real users and what actually needs to exist for AI payment systems to work.

12 min read
HTTP 402L402 ProtocolAPI Design
technical

The True Cost of Running AI APIs: Complete 2025 Guide

Compare GPT-4, Claude, and Gemini pricing with real profitability calculations. See exact $/token costs, context window pricing, and margin analysis for AI SaaS startups.

6 min read
ai-costspricinggpt-4