Two cents a call feels free — until it multiplies

API costs that look negligible in a demo become the line item that kills your margin at scale, and by the time you notice, the invoice has already landed.

Two cents per call sounds like nothing when you're testing with one account. Then a thousand users show up and hit it ten times a day, and that "nothing" is $0.02 × 1,000 users × 10 calls × 30 days — six thousand dollars a month, compounding with every signup you're supposed to be celebrating. Nobody budgets for the prompt bill until it's due.

The fix isn't "use the model less." It's three controls, running before launch, not after the first invoice.

Two checks from this doctrine

Real value, not a teaser — two of the 4 checks in full. The rest are in the one-pager.

A model call without a spending cap is a blank check with your business's name on it.