How I Cut AI API Costs by 65% — A Freelance Dev's 2026 Guide (opens in new tab)

How I Cut AI API Costs by 65% — A Freelance Dev's 2026 Guide Three months ago I opened my monthly invoice from a client project and nearly choked on my cold brew. I'd been running a moderately complex AI workflow — the kind of thing you spin up for a SaaS founder who wants document analysis piped into their CRM — and the API charges alone were eating 22% of the project fee. Twenty-two percent. On a contract I'd already quoted tight because I wanted the retainer. That's the moment I became the...