memex/projects/token-optimization/docs/budget-50.org

Token Optimization - $50 Monthly Budget

• Budget: $50/Month
  • Budget Breakdown
  • Daily Free Allowance
  • Paid Tier Allocation ($45)
  • Hard Limits
  • Daily Tracking
  • Emergency Protocol
  • Cost-Per-Task Guidelines
  • Optimization Imperative
  • Monthly Review
  • Break-Even Analysis
  • Questions for Human Partner

Budget: $50/Month

Budget Breakdown

Tier	Provider	Allocation	Tokens Est.	Use Case
FREE	Google Gemini	$0	~9M/month	90% of work
CHEAP	OpenRouter	$20	~6M tokens	Fallback, complex tasks
PREMIUM	Claude/GPT-4o	$25	~500K tokens	Critical decisions
BUFFER	Various	$5	Emergency	Overruns, testing

Daily Free Allowance

• Google Gemini: 300K tokens/day = 9M/month = $0
• This covers 90-95% of expected workload

Paid Tier Allocation ($45)

• $20 → OpenRouter (Qwen, Mistral, Llama)

  • ~6M tokens at $0.003/1K
  • Use when: Gemini rate limited, need different model

• $25 → Premium models (Claude, GPT-4o)

  • ~500K tokens at $0.05/1K average
  • Use when: Architecture decisions, critical code review, final validation

• $5 → Buffer

  • Handle overruns
  • Emergency access
  • Testing new models

Hard Limits

Provider	Monthly Cap	Alert At
OpenRouter	$20	$16 (80%)
Premium	$25	$20 (80%)
Total	$50	$45 (90%)

Daily Tracking

Target: Monitor consumption every session

``` IF daily_cost > $1.50: → Switch to Gemini only → Defer premium tasks

IF weekly_cost > $12: → Review usage patterns → Find optimization opportunities ```

Emergency Protocol

If approaching $50 limit before month end:

1. Halt all paid API calls
2. Switch to Gemini-only mode
3. Queue premium tasks for next month
4. Consider local inference setup

Cost-Per-Task Guidelines

Task Type	Max Cost	Preferred Model
Quick lookup	$0.00	Gemini
Code review	$0.01	Gemini/OpenRouter
Feature design	$0.05	OpenRouter
Architecture review	$0.10	Claude/GPT-4o
Emergency debug	$0.20	Best available

Optimization Imperative

With $50/month, waste is not affordable:

• ❌ No speculative queries
• ❌ No "just curious" premium calls
• ❌ No repeated similar prompts
• ✅ Always use Gemini first
• ✅ Batch similar requests
• ✅ Cache embeddings locally
• ✅ Summarize long contexts

Monthly Review

1. Compare actual vs. projected usage
2. Adjust model routing rules
3. Identify expensive query patterns
4. Plan next month's allocation

Break-Even Analysis

At $50/month = $600/year:

• Option A: Continue APIs (flexible, managed)

• Option B: Local inference (~$800 hardware, $0 ongoing)

  • Break-even: 16 months
  • Risk: Hardware failure, maintenance

Recommendation: Stick with APIs until $100+/month, then evaluate hardware.

Questions for Human Partner

1. Is $50 firm or flexible in emergencies?
2. What happens if we hit limit mid-critical-task?
3. Preference for which premium model? (Claude vs GPT-4 vs both)
4. Should I track and report costs per project?
5. Any tasks that are "unlimited budget" critical?