unit economics

Percentage savings make every quarter look like a win and tell you almost nothing. A denominator tied to revenue is the one that survives scrutiny, because it is the only one a finance conversation can act on.

Pay-per-use sounds free until the invoice arrives. The useful method is to decompose the bill into invocations, gigabyte-seconds and the lines nobody models, then locate the honest crossover rather than arguing about it.

Token spend has no natural ceiling. Every retry, every retrieved document, every chain step multiplies, and nothing in the system tells anyone until the invoice arrives.

A budget miss can coexist with lower cost per request. Separate demand, usage intensity and price effects before assigning an efficiency target.