How I Cut My AI API Bill by 90% With a Multi-Model Routing System

Short summary

Engineer reduced monthly LLM API costs from $847 to $73 by routing tasks to appropriate models—Haiku for classification, Sonnet for content, Ollama for free embeddings. Task-type routing with fallback chains and quality gates maintains 98% quality while cutting costs 91%. Reproducible pattern works with any LLM provider combination.

• •Reduced API costs 91% ($847→$73/month) via intelligent task-to-model routing
• •Routes by task type (not length) with fallback chains and quality gates
• •Reproducible framework works with any LLM provider; 2% quality tradeoff

Generated with AI, which can make mistakes.