Question 1

What is LLM API pricing?

Accepted Answer

LLM API pricing is the cost charged by AI providers for processing text through their language models. Pricing is typically measured per million tokens (roughly 750,000 words), with separate rates for input (your prompt) and output (the model response).

Question 2

How much does GPT-5 cost?

Accepted Answer

GPT-5.2 costs approximately $2.00 per million input tokens and $8.00 per million output tokens through direct OpenAI API access. Through LLMWise, you pay with credits that settle based on actual token usage, often saving 10-30% compared to direct provider pricing.

Question 3

How to reduce LLM costs?

Accepted Answer

Key strategies include: using smaller models for simple tasks (e.g. GPT-4o Mini for classification), optimizing prompt length, caching frequent responses, using LLMWise cost-saver mode for automatic routing to the cheapest capable model, and monitoring usage with per-model analytics.

Question 4

What is token-based pricing?

Accepted Answer

Tokens are the basic units LLMs process, roughly 4 characters or 0.75 words each. API pricing is quoted per million tokens. A typical 500-word prompt uses about 670 tokens. Output tokens are usually 2-4x more expensive than input tokens because they require more computation.

Question 5

LLMWise vs direct API pricing?

Accepted Answer

LLMWise uses credit-based billing that settles based on actual provider costs plus a transparent margin. Benefits include: one wallet for all providers, automatic failover routing, cost optimization, and no separate subscriptions. Free models from the open catalog cost zero credits.