Poor AI design is draining your token budget
On real tasks, Acme spent 78% less on tokens than a generic agent.
Token overruns are a
system design issue,
more than a model issue.
Four design choices that bring token costs down
- 01
Context layer
Better inputs mean fewer tokens. Indexes built ahead of time return exactly the right passages, so the model isn't paying to merge, dedupe and clean raw data on every call.
- 02
Model routing
Each job goes to the model that suits it best. A vendor tied to one model has no way to send work elsewhere; Acme works with many providers, so it can.
- 03
Ongoing learning
The more it's used, the more it recognizes recurring patterns, and the less compute each correct answer requires.
- 04
Harness
The harness assembles context for each request, so its design sets both token use and answer quality.
Most teams track what tokens cost. Hardly anyone tracks what each token gets done.
Acme needs fewer tokens, and pays less for each one it uses.
78%
78% less spent per task
$0.62 per task with Acme, compared with $2.91 for a generic agent
At $2.91 a task, rolling a generic agent out to thousands of people turns into a serious budget line. Acme spends fewer tokens per answer and picks among model providers rather than defaulting to the priciest frontier model.
| Price per 1M tokens | Tokens per task | Total per task | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acme | Acme$0.44 | 1.4M | $0.62* |
| Generic agent | Generic agent$0.71 | 4.1M | $2.91* |
*Placeholder figures for illustration, rounded. Totals use the exact, unrounded inputs.
Higher yield: more finished work for every token used.
- Preferred overall
- 74%
- Thoroughness
- 71%
- Accuracy
- 79%
- Conversation quality
- 73%
72% win rate.
When reviewers chose a favorite, they chose Acme 72% of the time. It led in all four areas, and its widest margin was on accuracy.
Preferred by every team.
- Sales
- 76%
- Marketing
- 72%
- People
- 70%
- Engineering
- 74%
- Finance
- 69%
- Support
- 73%
- Product
- 66%
Reviewers from sales, marketing, people, engineering, finance and beyond all favored Acme's answers.
What would that difference cost a company your size?
$3.0Mback in your budget each year.
Acme
Generic agent
See where the tokens go.Then see what Acme keeps.
Lower spend, better results.
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Paying for intelligence: how system design sets AI cost and value for large companies