Lesson 1 of 10 · Cut AI Product Costs Without Killing Quality
In this lesson. Tokens, retries, tools, and idle features — not just the sticker price.
What you will learn
- Token, request, and tool-call costs
- Hidden spend from retries and long context
- A cost map you can reuse on any feature
Walkthrough
Most teams look at a model’s list price and miss the rest of the bill. You will map one feature into tokens in, tokens out, tool calls, retries, and cache misses. That map is how you cut cost without randomly “using a smaller model” and hoping quality survives. This is the cost anatomy of an AI product.
Work through the ideas in order. After each point, pause and connect it to a task you already do — a document, a workflow, or a feature you own. The goal of Cut AI Product Costs Without Killing Quality is usable skill, not a pile of notes.
If something is unclear, rewrite it in your own words before you continue. Teaching the step back to yourself is the fastest way to see gaps.
Practice
List every AI call in one feature. Label each as tokens, tools, or retries, and circle the two largest lines.
Keep the first attempt small. A finished example you can reuse beats a perfect plan you never run.
Check your understanding
- Can you explain the goal of this lesson in one sentence to a teammate?
- Where would you apply “Token, request, and tool-call costs” in your own work this week?
- What would you change on a second pass of the practice?
Next. Continue to the following lesson when the practice has a real artifact, even a rough one.