How to Estimate LLM API Cost Before Shipping Your AI App

Most AI app prototypes look cheap. Then production happens. A developer tests an LLM feature with 20 prompts, gets a few good responses, and assumes the cost is manageable. But production cost is not based on one prompt. It is based on: input tokens output tokens requests per user users per day retry rate tool calls prompt caching conversation history model choice That is where many teams get surprised. The mistake is simple: they estimate the cost of a single API call instead of esti...