AI Got Up to 80% Cheaper This Year. You're Probably Still Paying Last Year's Price.
Check how much of your AI spend is recoverable at today's market rates — in about 20 seconds, no sign-up required.
The AI models running most businesses got 70 to 90 percent cheaper in the past year. Almost nobody renegotiated. In our work with small and mid-sized businesses, the same pattern keeps showing up: last year's contract, this year's commodity, and a bill that never moved. This checker gives you a fast, directional estimate of how much you're likely leaving on the table.
Check What You're Overpaying
Why Prices Fell and Your Bill Didn't
The token prices behind the major models have dropped repeatedly, almost always downward, and the frontier keeps getting cheaper to reach. You can see the current rates on our AI model pricing page. The problem is that the savings only reach you if someone re-prices your stack — and for most businesses, no one has.
The Three Ways Businesses Overpay
| Overpay | What it looks like | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| Frontier models for junior work | Every task routed to a premium model, even the routine 90% | Route simple, high-volume work to cheaper models that do it just as well |
| Per-seat SaaS markups | "AI-powered" add-ons priced per user that resell the same tokens | Price the raw usage and drop or renegotiate the wrapper |
| Contracts with no repricing clause | Annual deals signed before the price collapse, auto-renewing at the old number | Reprice at renewal against current market rates |
None of these require changing what your team sees day to day. They change what sits underneath — and what you pay for it.
How the Estimate Works
This checker is a directional estimate, not an audit. Here is exactly what it does:
- Starts from your current spend and seats. Everything is measured against what you already pay each month, and your seat count exposes the per-seat rate — where wrapper markups hide.
- Reads your buying method. Per-seat SaaS buyers sit furthest from market rate; a single premium model for everything is next; mixed stacks are partway; already-routed stacks have little left to recover.
- Weighs how old your contracts are. Prices fell 70 to 90 percent over the past year, so a deal signed 12+ months ago sits further below current market than one repriced last month — and the estimate scales with that gap.
- Adjusts for your workload. The more of your work is simple and high-volume, the more of it can move to cheap models — so the recoverable share scales up with that.
- Returns the gap. Estimated market-rate cost, your per-seat rate, the monthly and annual overpay, and roughly how many times market rate you're paying today.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Yes. Per-token prices for frontier AI models fell roughly 70 to 90 percent over the trailing twelve months, and the cuts are ongoing — OpenAI reduced its flagship pricing by 80 percent in August 2026. The models that handle most routine business work now cost a small fraction of what they did a year ago.
- Because pricing moved faster than anyone renegotiated. Most businesses signed an AI vendor contract or added a per-seat "AI feature" 12 to 18 months ago and never revisited it. No vendor emails you when their product gets cheaper, so you keep paying last year’s rate on an auto-renewing contract.
- It is a directional estimate. It models how far a typical buyer on your purchasing method sits from a re-routed, market-rate stack, adjusted for how much of your work is simple, high-volume tasks that cheap models handle well. For an exact, invoice-backed number, book a free AI cost and workflow audit.
- A lot. Per-seat SaaS add-ons resell wrapped tokens at the highest markup, so buyers there are usually furthest from market rate. Running one premium model for every task — including junior work a cheaper model does just as well — is the next biggest source of waste. Mixed stacks are partway there, and already-routed stacks have little left to recover.
- Sometimes, but the savings usually come from routing — sending each task to the cheapest model that does it well, keeping premium models only where they earn their price. That, plus removing per-seat markups and repricing old contracts, is what an audit sets up. It rarely changes what your team sees day to day.
- Layer3Labs reviews your actual AI stack — the tools, models, and contracts you run — and re-prices the work against current market rates, then shows exactly what to re-route and what to keep. It is the same review we run on our own client operations. The initial assessment is free.
Want the Exact Number?
This checker shows the opportunity. A free AI cost and workflow audit re-prices your real stack against current market rates and shows exactly what to re-route — usually without changing what your team sees.
Book Your Free Audit