AI Cost Governance
AI that pays for itself, on a bill you can predict.
Most AI cost tools count tokens. We measure what each successful outcome costs, retries and failures included, because a cheaper model that fails more often is not cheaper. Then we cut what does not earn its keep and put budgets in place so the bill stops surprising you.
Measure, reduce, govern
Every engagement runs in this order: you cannot cut what you have not measured, and cuts do not stick without someone owning them. An agent can make dozens of model calls for one task, re-sending a growing context each time, so we measure agents per completed task, not per call.
1. Measure
Token metering and cost attribution: every model call tagged by feature, user and workflow. Unit economics per request, user, feature and successful task.
2. Reduce
Prompt engineering for cost, prompt caching (hit rates and break-even), batch and async workloads, model routing, RAG context trimming and the agent cost multiplier. Each change is tested on a fixed suite so quality holds.
3. Govern
Budgets and quotas per team or feature, spend alerts and hard stops that actually stop spend, cost ownership, a 12-month forecast and vendor negotiation support.
Services and prices
Start with the free check. The Cost Review then shows whether you need to cut cost (Cost-Down Sprint), control it (Governance Setup), or both. Every fee is fixed before work starts and is never a share of savings.
AI Bill Shock Check
Pilot: Procedure designed and deliverable with existing tools, but not yet delivered to a client. Sold under pilot terms.A 30-minute call plus a one-page read of one month of invoices and usage exports: your top 3 cost drivers and the likely quick wins.
- Timeline
- 1 week
- Price
- Free
- Independence
- Measure only
AI Cost Review
Pilot: Procedure designed and deliverable with existing tools, but not yet delivered to a client. Sold under pilot terms.Your usage logs analyzed: cost per request, user, feature and successful task; cache hit rates; agent and RAG cost multipliers; savings ranked by dollars; and a 90-day plan.
- Timeline
- 2 weeks
- Price
- $7,500 fixed (one product, up to 3 features)
- Independence
- Measure only
Cost-Down Sprint
Pilot: Procedure designed and deliverable with existing tools, but not yet delivered to a client. Sold under pilot terms.Prompt trimming, caching, batch jobs and routing to cheaper or local models, with every change tested before and after on a fixed suite. Builds on Harness Configuration & Cost-Down.
- Timeline
- 3 to 6 weeks
- Price
- From $15,000 (pilot pricing)
- Independence
- Build work: internal evaluation
Cost Governance Setup
Pilot: Procedure designed and deliverable with existing tools, but not yet delivered to a client. Sold under pilot terms.Metering and cost tags, budgets and quotas per team or feature, alerts and hard stops, an AI spend dashboard and a 12-month forecast.
- Timeline
- 4 to 6 weeks
- Price
- $18,000 fixed for one product; from $30,000 across several teams
- Independence
- Build work: internal evaluation
Forecast & Vendor Negotiation Support
Pilot: Procedure designed and deliverable with existing tools, but not yet delivered to a client. Sold under pilot terms.A 12-month spend forecast, a side-by-side of provider pricing and commit discounts for your usage, a negotiation brief, and TrendLab on up to 2 vendor calls.
- Timeline
- 2 to 3 weeks
- Price
- $6,000 fixed
- Independence
- Advisory: we work for you, never the vendor
AI Cost Monitoring
Pilot: Procedure designed and deliverable with existing tools, but not yet delivered to a client. Sold under pilot terms.A monthly cost-per-outcome report, budget vs. actual, a forecast update and an alert review.
- Timeline
- Monthly
- Price
- +$1,500 per month on an existing Monitoring plan; $3,000 per month on its own
- Independence
- Measure only, when TrendLab did not build the setup
Measuring and fixing are kept apart
Measure-only work can be independent when we had no hand in building or advising on your system. When we change your agent or build your controls, our tests of that work are internal evaluations, never called independent. We do not publish savings figures until a client delivery is on record.
Already evaluating an agent?
Cost is one of the six questions in every TrendLab agent evaluation, and Model & Harness Comparison reports cost per successful task when you switch models.
AI cost questions people ask first
Straight answers. If yours is not here, the discovery call is free.
Why is our AI bill higher than expected?
Usually three things: agents that make many model calls per task, retrieval that sends more context than the answer needs, and prompt caching that is off or not hitting. The free AI Bill Shock Check shows which ones apply to you.
Will cutting cost hurt quality?
Not when each change is tested. We change one thing at a time and re-run a fixed test suite built from your tasks before keeping it, so you see cost and quality side by side.
What does cost per successful task mean?
The total model spend for a task, including failed attempts and retries, divided by the tasks that actually succeeded. A cheaper model that fails more often can cost more per success than the model it replaced.
Is this independent?
The Bill Shock Check, Cost Review and Cost Monitoring only measure, so they can be independent when TrendLab had no hand in building or advising on the system. When we change your agent or build your controls, our tests of that work are internal evaluations.
Do you help negotiate with AI vendors?
Yes. Forecast & Vendor Negotiation Support gives you a 12-month spend forecast, a pricing comparison across providers for your usage, a negotiation brief, and TrendLab on up to 2 vendor calls. Our fee is fixed and never a share of savings.
Do you sell cost-tracking software?
No. We configure the tools you already have, or open-source metering, and hand over a dashboard your team owns.
Start with a free AI Bill Shock Check
Send one month of invoices and usage exports. In a week you get your top 3 cost drivers and the likely quick wins, whether or not you work with us after.